Statement from Florida Education Association President Joanne McCall on Passage of HB 7055:
Tallahassee, FL ̶ The House Speaker has once again bullied his chamber into casting a vote that jeopardizes the quality of education for 2.8 million public school students.
“HB 7055 is a 198 page log-rolled bill full of proposals that do nothing to improve public education in Florida. It is a disaster for our students and will create very real problems for our schools. Legislators should focus on investing in our neighborhood public schools, where 90 percent of children attend, not diverting money from them on fly-by-night schemes and vouchers – and personal gain,” said FEA President Joanne McCall.
“Speaker Corcoran seems to forget that as businesses look to locate in a state, they first look at the quality of the public schools. We cannot attract talent and grow high quality jobs in our state while we tear apart our public schools.” said McCall.
“What’s worse, the Speaker has tied more than $8 billion that funds public education to HB 7055 becoming law. It appears that the Speaker is on a course to hold public education funding hostage and bring our public education system to its knees. It is shameful that more legislators did not have the courage to rise against the Speaker’s heavy handed tactics.”
“This is now in the Senate’s hands. Senators’ statements today that the upper chamber will stand up to the House Speaker’s power grab is encouraging.” said McCall.