Union poll: Teachers upset at DeSantis

Results show they want vaccines provided, no tests

Florida teachers are deeply dissatisfied with Gov. Ron DeSantis, angry his pay raise plan largely left out veteran instructors and upset he hasn’t prioritized teachers for COVID-19 vaccinations, a new teachers union poll released Friday shows.

Teachers also are bothered about the state’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, eager to see standardized tests canceled this year and worried about how their students have fared as the health crisis upended public education, the poll done for the Florida Education Association found.

“Quite simply, respondents are not happy about the State of Florida and how they have been treated by lawmakers and the current administration,” read the summary of the poll done by Clearview Research. “They feel they are being disrespected at every turn.”

The poll was done this month and surveyed teachers who are union members. In all, 76% gave him an unfavorably rating.

DeSantis called 2020 “the year of the teacher” and pushed a teacher raise plan through the Florida Legislature that aimed to boost the base pay to $47,500. The effort, he said, should hike salaries for more than half of Florida’s public school teachers.

But the plan did little for veteran teachers already earning more than the new minimum. In Orange County, for example, new teachers got raises of about 16% while veterans received a little more than 1%.

In the poll, nearly 88% of teachers called the raise plan unfair.

About 86% of teachers want DeSantis to make them a priority when it comes to providing COVID19

vaccines. School leaders and unions have urged that, saying since the governor insisted public schools open in August, he also should do what he can to protect school staff from the virus.

The governor has made residents 65 and older his first priority, along with health care workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities. But this week, he said teachers and police officers 50 and older could be next in line, though he has not released any specific plans.

The poll also found that: 85% of teachers want spring standardized testing — scheduled to begin as usual in April — canceled and 94% don’t want testing results tied to their evaluations; 86% felt all students were struggling during the pandemic and 74% felt schools were doing a poor job keeping staff and students safe from the virus.