Teachers belong on State Board of Education
Who do you want making your decisions?
Who do you want making decisions about your medical care? Doctors, right? Who do you want making decisions about your legal representation? Lawyers, right? Who do you want making decisions about the safety of your roads, vehicles, and buildings? Engineers, right? Who do you want making decisions about your children’s education? Teachers, right? Unfortunately, in education, that is not the case.
Eighty percent of the members of the Florida Board of Medicine are medical doctors. One hundred percent of the members of the governing board of the Florida Bar Association are lawyers. Sixty-seven percent of the members of the Florida Board of Professional Engineers are engineers.
Guess how many members of the Florida State Board of Education are educators? Zero! That’s right, not a single member of the Florida State Board of Education, the group that makes the rules for the education of your children, is a teacher.
Not one member has an education degree. Not one member has any classroom teaching experience. Why on earth would you want people who have background or experience in education making decisions about your children’s education?
Andy Tuck, chairman of the Florida State Board of Education, has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and is a business owner. Marva Johnson, vice chairman, has a degree in Business Administration, an MBA, a law degree, and is a vice president of Charter Communications.
Why on Earth is a group consisting entirely of lawyers and business people with absolutely no education background or experience making the decisions about our children’s education? Why are our politicians not required to appoint people with education backgrounds and classroom experience to the state board of education?
Teachers are not treated as professionals. No one without training or experience in the field would think they have the knowledge to make rules governing doctors, lawyers, or engineers, yet that is exactly what is happening in the field of education.
People think that just because they sat in a classroom as a student, they know what is best for education. While it is true that parents and community members also have a right to have input in decisions affecting their children’s education, shouldn’t the teachers educating the children have the same right?
We have educators represented on the Florida State Board of Education. They are the ones who have been trained to educate your children. They are the ones on the front lines who educate your children. Why shouldn’t they be on the board that makes the decisions about education?
The problems in education will be fixed until the people making the rules actually have training and experience in the field of education. If you truly want a better educational future for your children, please contact your legislators and demand that educators be appointed to the Florida State Board of Education.