Legislation & Strikes: Florida Legislation

Educators are continuing to speak out against legislation that promotes censorship such as the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill in Florida. As classrooms continue to become politicized, educators are organizing union strikes to advocate for improved teaching conditions.

  • “Love to queer Florida kids tonight and always. Also sending love to the Florida teachers. May you be empowered to do what’s right anyway.” —High School ELA Teacher in Texas
    • “Queer FL 4th grade teacher- first year. Really struggling.” —Elementary Teacher in Florida
    • “NYC queer educator here. Thank you for your service. You showing up daily is an act of resistance with an immeasurable ripple effect to our young trans and queer kids. Much love n respect.” —Middle School Teacher in New York
  • “Teachers deserve better conditions, support and salaries. We absolutely must do a better job of advocating for ourselves. This includes going as far as striking. Yes, striking. Even if it’s illegal in your state. What are they going to do, fire every teacher in the state?” —Educator in Michigan
    • “The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill is just Florida’s version of the Texas CRT bill with a different theme. No one is teaching these topics in K-12, but the GOP is encouraging parents to stay angry at teachers—and now they have an excuse to easily sue public schools if they feel like it.” —STEM Teacher in Wisconsin 
    • “People want better teachers for less money, and tell them if they don’t like it to leave. Meanwhile, they’re upset they gotta figure out what to do with their kids during a strike, but don’t realize that’s exactly what it will be wo public education.” —Educator, N/A
    • “Minneapolis educators & ESPs fought for the things kids need to thrive and that they need to do their job and live in Minneapolis. @MFT59 & @MFT59ESP fought for a #SafeAndStableMPS and they won.” —Teacher in Washington, D.C.
  • “In one corner, we have the ‘you aren’t a good teacher if you don’t defy the system’ & in the other corner, we have ‘don’t say gay or acknowledge any of America’s abuses of Black, Indigenous, & other peoples of color or lose your job.’ I’m exhausted.” —Middle School ELA Teacher in Louisiana

Since January 2022, there was been a 26.9% increase in the volume of conversations pertaining to censorship and unions. This proves that educators are consistently discussing the ramifications of politics.

March – April 2022

January 2022

Methodology: These charts represent a sample of sentiment and mentions of 5,000 teachers on Twitter in January 2022 compared to March and April 2022.