Florida Republicans are once again using their power to fight against teachers and public education.
Conservative Florida representative Bob Rommel recently proposed a bill that puts teachers in the hot seat—and people aren't happy about it.
Rommel publicly pushed the idea of creating a bill to force teachers to wear microphones during school hours.
The reason? So parents could hear and subsequently monitor the lessons being taught to their children in schools.
In the wake of the huge controversy about the teaching of critical race theory—a graduate school field of study mistaken for teaching an accurate, non-White supremacist version of history—conservative parents and politicians have been fighting tooth and nail to keep educators from teaching anything that might be critical of a White person to their children.
Thus, Rommel has been attempting to create and implement legislation to allow parents to monitor teachers to be sure their children aren't being taught accurate history. He believes he can do so without infringing on teachers' rights.
He said:
"I think if we can do it in a safe way to protect the privacy of students and teachers, I think we should do it."
"I haven't heard a response good or bad from any teachers, but…it's not their private space. It's our children's space, too."
Educators are standing their ground against the suggested bill, however.
In an interview with CBS, Broward Teachers Union president Anna Fusco warned that legislation such as this would turn even more educators against the already-shrinking profession, as prospective teachers won't stand for having their lessons constantly monitored and criticized by overbearing parents.
She said:
"You want to play Big Brother every moment?"
"That's not how society should be. We need to get back to where we have trust, we have value, we have faith and we have conversations and we can work things out if something happens."
Twitter users are showing solidarity with teachers.
This is far from the first legislation that would put unnecessary stress and control over teachers.
In fact, recently Indiana Senator Scott Baldwin faced backlash over remarks he made about filing a bill that would require teachers to show impartiality when teaching fascism and Nazism, a remark that he has since backtracked on.
Other bills include a recently-proposed Iowa bill that would force teachers to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and display "patriotism," as well that other bills which slash education budgets while forcing teachers to pay for supplies out of pocket, refuse to allow teachers to wear masks, and forcing teachers to carry extra workloads due to staffing shortages.
If laws continue to place financial burdens on educators whilst curtailing their workers' rights, then the field of education may continue to suffer.
