As Florida's legislative session gets underway, a new poll from the Florida Education Association shows teachers aren't giving Gov. Ron DeSantis or Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran high marks.

What You Need To Know

  • FEA poll of teachers found vast majority do not approve of the jobs being done by DeSantis, Corcoran, and the Legislature

  • The union is calling on lawmakers to pause negative consequences for standardized tests

  • FEA wants higher pay and multi-year contracts to address teacher shortage

The association is also calling for lawmakers to shift their priorities when it comes to education.

According to the poll of FEA members:

  • 76% disapprove of the governor's job performance
  • 74% are unhappy with the legislature
  • 67% are unsatisfied with the Education Commissioner.

"The Governor has not prioritized educators in the vaccination process. He's taken a small step recently, but overall he hasn't prioritized them. He didn't listen to educators when we were reopening schools. He didn't ensure measures were in place to keep educators protected and safe," FEA President Andrew Spar said.

During his State of the State address, DeSantis said he was proud of the state's reopening plan for schools. He said the decision prevented many students from falling behind academically and was helpful for working parents.

"Florida has lead the way in providing all parents the right to send their kids to school for in-person instruction. Florida is one of only four states in the country, and the only large state, to offer in-person instruction to 100% of its students," Gov. DeSantis said.

However, in the FEA poll, teachers were split on the quality of education during the pandemic, with 46% who feel good about it and 51% who don't.

The FEA has a list of things it will be pushing for during the legislative session. They include:

  • Pausing negative consequences associated with high-stakes testing for at least two years
  • Addressing the teacher shortage with higher salaries and multi-year contracts
  • More local control for school districts

"We want them to essentially get out of our way and support the work we're doing instead of passing archaic laws that get in the way of our work, that micro-manage what's happening in our schools and that create more bureaucracy," Spar said.

Governor DeSantis said in his speech that he will reject any reduction to funding for K-12 education. He also said the state will put more emphasis on vocational education and a new civics initiative.