Ron DeSantis's blueprint to dominate teachers' union bosses
Fox News
Ron DeSantis announced to Florida school board members and future candidates an ambitious “Freedom Blueprint."
Paul Zimmerman is Policy Counsel for The Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies.
Capitalizing on his recent drubbing of pro-teacher union gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist and dozens of anti-education freedom school board candidates, Governor DeSantis announced to Florida school board members and future candidates in December an ambitious "Freedom Blueprint" that would disrupt public K–12 schools’ cozy relationships with unions and restore to teachers the agency to decide whether they wish to join or remain with these unaccountable, ideologically driven interest groups.
If enacted, DeSantis’s proposals would raise teacher pay while stymying union bosses from siphoning these funds out of teachers’ pockets and into their own coffers. Schools would no longer be permitted to fund unions directly out of teachers’ paychecks. Unions would need permission from teachers each year to keep them on their membership roll. To restrain "zombie" unions that no longer enjoy widespread teacher support from terrorizing students and parents, the blueprint would require that unions represent over 50 percent of teachers to engage in collective bargaining with a district.