Hello all, I hope the glorious Saturday is treating you well. I would like to share a letter with you today, something I just got in my email box. It is a direct response to the Jeb Bush/Charlie Crist/Marco Rubio/Bill McCollum/John Thrasher attack on teachers in Florida. I will share the full letter after the fold.
It seems Republicans see these bills as a way to "save the budget" while doing "God's work" to destroy the Unions in order to "stop" the supposed communist/socialist progressive attack on our country.
Is this the true agenda for Florida's Attack on Education?
It seems to have turned into a political battle fueled by resentment of the Democrats pushing through the Health Care reform. When I spoke to one representative's aide and mentioned how even though I am a life-long Republican, that I would vote Democrat if I had to, I was given a "I don't care" attitude and it was brought up that the "Democrats are worse, pushing through health reform without bipartisan support." I was then comforted that they were working to allow teachers and students to pray in schools with HB11. I just said, that, we'll need it, as prayer will be the only thing that gets teachers through such insanity. When I agreed about how I was also upset about the Health Reform passing I was proudly told that it was being fought via a lawsuit filed by Republicans. Wonderful that they are filing a lawsuit, costing tens of millions of dollars out of the budget to fight something when our state can't even afford it. That money comes out of all our pockets, especially when the education budget is already a disaster!
You can see where Florida is going in November. ObamaHaters vs. Teachers of all flavors.
Republicans seem to be spouting off talking points straight out of Glenn Beck's TV show, about how teachers and the DOE are indoctrinating our children to be progressive socialists/communists and how teacher unions support lazy educators and are nothing more than a nazi-ish tool that is actively working to destroy America. They are literally working to dismantle the unions and our entire public education system, piece by piece. This is in order to pull away from the DOE and other administrative bodies.
It seems Republicans see these bills as a way to "save the budget" while doing "God's work" to destroy the Unions in order to "stop" the supposed communist/socialist progressive attack on our county. They are supposedly working closely to tie these reforms with new textbooks derived straight from Texas, that will be written with a "more conservative" view of American History. They see our current Public Education as "socialism" and are working to end it.
If they get this blatant about it in public, we will utterly destroy them. We have already begun to organize boycotts of the corporations who are funding them.
In addition to paying educators less, one of the major reasons that Republicans are possibly trying to discourage teachers from getting higher degrees is not only to ensure a less qualified, less educated teaching force, but also to ensure conservative values. Many studies and surveys have shown that the more higher education individuals tend to receive, the more 'liberal' or 'progressive' an individual tends to become on many key issues. If they don't recognize higher degrees, then it may be possible to control the political leanings of the teaching force as well as the curriculum.
The dumbing down of American continues. Unless we can stop it. They are putting an awful lot of eggs in this basket, and they may get cracked.
Republicans are refusing to talk to teachers or unions because they see them as subversives pushing a "socialistic" agenda of entitlements. They aren't listening to parents because they see them as being "misinformed" by teachers and teachers unions. And they refuse to work with Democrats because of bitterness over President Obama and the health care reform that was rammed through. They are being deceptive about the bills in hopes of influencing the public and only telling half truths about teacher contracts, pay, and the huge cuts in retirement.
These bills are literally setting up our public education system to fail, and have the teachers be scapegoats, in order to most likely transition Florida's education system towards a private, free-market system that will allow the politicians to profit handsomely through corporate run educational facilities. What little public education system that is left over will cater towards the poor and be of extremely low quality, high turnover, and low morale.
Our movement has been full of hope, but our spirit will be broken if they pass the bill and get it signed by Crist. Then we get mad.
Florida is indeed experimenting with our public schools, pushing policies that will eliminate public education almost completely in order to privatize our entire system. This is a plan that has a much farther outlook than the next 5-10 years. They most likely feel that by privatizing our education system completely they will have more control over what is taught, how it is taught, and who is hired and fired, especially with Florida being an "at will" employment state. They do sincerely believe it will improve the quality of education while making corporations a profit which will in turn stimulate the local economy. There is even talk of encouraging private religious schools via tax payer subsidies.
From the looks of this, there appears no way to stop these bills, as they are literally ignoring private citizens in order to push them through. With the economy as bad as it is they don't think teachers will quit. They also know that teachers are not allowed to strike. In essence, they know there is little recourse. They also don't believe that people will "compromise their morals" and vote Democrat, so they feel their seats are completely safe in Florida.
The Republicans stand to lose the whole game over their attack on teachers. Mark my words. We are going straight to their wallets. Publix and Office Depot are already shaking in their boots. We have 240,000 teachers, and they all have families and friends.
I am a life-long Conservative Christian Republican, but even I know that the way they are going about this all wrong. It is not only Unchristian, but jeopardizes Florida's economy and the education of all of our children, leaving behind the neediest in the poorest communities.
If a life-long Conservative Christian Republican can see this, why can't they?