DeSantis Signs Slew of Education-Related Bills to Increase Parental and Teacher Rights in Florida

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to Iowa voters gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 10, 2023. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a cluster of education bills on May 9 in what was termed the most comprehensive education legislation ever passed by any state.

DeSantis signed five bills in a ceremony at True North Classical Academy, a charter school in Miami.

The most significant measure for teachers is one he hasn’t signed yet but said he soon would: the state budget, passed by the legislature on May 5. It allocates more than $1 billion to teacher salaries, including a $252 million raise from the previous budget.

One bill protects teacher paychecks by eliminating the automatic deduction of teachers union dues.

A second bill removes bureaucratic obstacles from teacher certification and extends the length of temporary teaching certificates.

A school bus rolls down the street in Gainesville, Fla., after school on Jan. 23, 2023. (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times)

A third bill establishes a “Teachers’ Bill of Rights,” protecting them if they break up fights and otherwise preserve order in the classroom and giving them avenues of redress if they are directed to break the law by their own administration or school board.

A fourth one takes social media out of the classroom and, building on another bill DeSantis signed the previous day, prohibits using the Tik Tok social media platform on district-owned devices.

A fifth bill reduces term limits for school board members from 12 to 8 years. A companion measure by the legislature will put on the November 2024 general election ballot to make school board elections, which have been non-partisan since 2000, partisan once more.

“I said after we concluded the session that the biggest winner of this session is children. And our defense of childhood and our education agenda has been a big, big part of that,” said House Speaker Paul Renner, who spoke along with DeSantis.

He called the session “the most consequential” in Florida’s and perhaps any state’s history.

Teachers in red T-shirts from three unions pass out free children's books during "The Great Florida Read In" near the state Capitol, in Tallahassee, Fla. on March 14, 2023.  (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times)

DeSantis said Florida was ranked first in education by U.S. News and World Report last week.

“Not a lot of people wanted to report that because they didn’t like the narrative on that, but the reality is we were No. 1,” he said.

And in the first round of national testing done post-COVID for 4th graders, he said, Florida ranked third and fourth, respectively, in reading and math.

Teachers Pay

Increasing teacher pay has been a priority since DeSantis’ 2018 election. According to the governor’s office, the state has invested more than $3.3 billion in teacher salary increases and bonuses.

The bill trimming back union power, Senate Bill 256, was labeled the Paycheck Protection Bill.

Unions lost the right to automatically deduct union dues from teachers’ paychecks and must notify members of membership costs.

DeSantis said the current process lacks “informed consent” because teachers are pressured to approve automatic deductions without knowing how much it will cost.

It will now be up to members to pay the unions directly.

Additionally, the unions must now represent at least 60 percent of employees, up from the current 50 percent, according to the governor’s office.

Unions now face annual audits and financial disclosures. And the bill prohibits any union from offering anything of value to a public official in collective bargaining negotiations.

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen throughout the county and other counties throughout the state of Florida, is that the education unions have been turned into political weapons,” said Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, whose children have attended True North.

“They’ve been not only spreading misinformation on things like the book ban hoax that we’ve simply debunked, but we also want to make sure that teachers have money that goes in their pocket. So we don’t want anyone messing with our teachers’ money.”

Teacher Certification

House Bill 1537 extends temporary teaching certificates from three to five years, expands eligibility, and eliminates “unnecessary bureaucratic requirements” from the certification process, according to the governor’s office. It restructures the state’s professional development programs for teachers.

Jeanine Finlay, True North’s head of school, said temporary certification has been important in hiring and retaining teachers with specialized knowledge in the content areas they teach.

“These teachers have a passion for education, but they might not necessarily have the educational background or experience in the classroom,” she said.

The new certification process gives them more time to refine their teaching methods, provides for weekly coaching sessions, and relieves them of taking online courses, she said.

True North operates two preschools, three elementary schools, and one middle and high school in Miami.

“Our schools are the top academic-ranked schools in Miami,” Finlay said. “But more importantly, our focus is on building character and virtue in each and every one of our students.”

It also makes Florida the first state in the nation to formally adopt the Classical Learning Test (CLT) as an alternative to the SAT and ACT for schools to offer students to earn post-secondary scholarship funding to state colleges and universities through the state’s Bright Futures program, the governor’s office said.

The CLT’s web page says it is: “Reintroducing truth, beauty, and goodness to modern education.”

More than 200 colleges and universities accept it for admission, including many religious ones.

The bill declares Sept. 11 to be “9/11 Heroes Day”, requiring 45 minutes of instruction for middle and high school students on that day’s tragic events.

“Kids in school are going to be learning about people who sacrificed at the Twin Towers,and at the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

“You think about it: Many of us remember that, and that was kind of a big deal for our country in terms of the last generation,” said DeSantis, who was commissioned as a naval officer in 2004 during his second year at Harvard Law School.

“But you look at these kids in high school here. They were not even born when Sept. 11 happened so we think it’s important that those folks are honored.”

Teachers’ Bill of Rights

House Bill 1035 creates a chapter in Florida Statutes to codify “the Teachers’ Bill of Rights.”

The bill sides with teachers in their effort to preserve safety and order in their classrooms by giving them the benefit of the doubt when they break up fights and prevent assaults.

It gives them the presumption of acting lawfully when they act for their own safety and that of their students.

The bill gives teachers an avenue for reporting if they’ve been directed to break the law by their administration or school board.

“Teachers should walk into the classroom every day knowing that they’re respected and if they have to intervene, not be worried about their jobs. To keep the safety of their kids and also be able to comply with state laws without having a rogue school board or administration trying to get back at them,” said Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr.

“Having been in the classroom myself back in those days when, I can’t call it anything else but when it was normal, it was expected. The teachers were respected. There weren’t devices interrupting classrooms,” Diaz said.

The bill establishes the Heroes in the Classroom Bonus Program, paying one-time signing bonuses to veterans and retired first responders who become full-time classroom teachers.

It establishes the Teacher Apprenticeship Program and Mentor Bonus as an alternative pathway for becoming teachers and authorizing temporary apprenticeship certificates for them.

Mentors of teacher apprentices can earn $4,000 for their work, Diaz said.

And it establishes the Dual Enrollment Educator Scholarship Program to assist public high school teachers in obtaining graduate degrees and credentials necessary to provide dual enrollment coursework—for students taking high school and college classes simultaneously—directly to students on high school campuses.

Getting Social Media Out of Schools

House Bill 379 gives teachers the authority to regulate classroom cellphone use and allows them to withhold a student’s phone if it is a disruption.

School boards must implement website filtering to prevent students from connecting to social media sites while using a district-owned computer or server.

Building on a bill DeSantis signed the previous day, which bans TikTok’s use at government or educational institutions, House Bill 379 prohibits using TikTok on district-owned devices.

And it requires schools to teach about the harmful effects of social media.