Photo by Dara Rosen

Thousands of protesters, consisting of teachers, students and parents marched to the Old Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Florida on Monday, Jan. 13 to tell legislatures to “Fund Our Future.” Dressed in red to show solidarity and unity, the protestors held up various signs with slogans to show their anger and opinions on a wide range of topics. The movement was held on the eve of the 2020 legislative session, and arguments discussed focused on fair pay for teachers and increased funding for schools.

The rally’s participants traveled from all over Florida to partake in the struggle for educational justice. In Broward County, the Broward Teachers Union provided free transportation via coach buses to the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, located at 506 West Pensacola Street, Tallahassee. That same morning, Broward County participants were required to meet at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, no later than 3:45 a.m., to depart promptly at 4 a.m. While some in the rally had a short commute, others spent up to 13 hours en route to the state capitol.

As groups exited each bus before the steps of the civic center, the protestors who were already present cheered in response to their arrivals. Everyone was decked out in red gear to match the rally’s slogan: “Red for Ed.” Those same participants posed for pictures, met up with old colleagues and prepared themselves for the march. During this time before the rally program, the protestors had the opportunity to create their own signs, hear `a quick message from educators inside the civic center and acquire water and snacks.

Standing on the steps in front of the civic center, a large cluster of Polk County educators were the first to gain the attention of onlookers. Their large turnout may have been a result of an incident that occurred on Friday night. General Counselor for the Department of Florida Education Matthew Mears sent the superintendent of Polk County Schools Jacqueline Byrd a threatening email that she went on to share with Polk County teachers.

The email, which was sent on Friday, Jan. 10, stated, “per the statute, a concerted failure to report for duty constitutes an illegal strike under Florida law. When teachers collectively decide not to show up for work on a specific day, children suffer as learning slows or even stops altogether.” In Mears’ email, he accused 1,600 teachers of striking, an illegal action in Florida, and threatened the loss of their jobs.

“We were shocked the letter went to only us and we found out it was our superintendent who requested the letter from the [Department of Education] Attorney,” Polk County teacher Jason Dart said. “Our first reaction was of course fear … fear for our jobs, fear for our livelihood. I have friends who are cancer survivors in Polk County who are teachers who immediately said ‘I can’t lose my health insurance’ and said ‘There’s no way I can get on the bus.’ But we were resilient.”

While many Polk County staffers feared prosecution from the state government, the majority still decided to go to the rally. The email enraged many workers who felt like victims of lawmakers and politicians. Since staff took off a personal day in order to march in the rally, it was not considered a strike; however those such as Mears viewed it in an opposing perspective.

“This is not just about teacher pay; it’s about funding programs and funding our public schools. And we’re here to tell our legislators they need to do better,” President of the Polk Education Association Stephanie Yocum said. “It’s important to know that we’re here exercising our First Amendment right to lobby our legislators. We need more funding holistically.”

Examples of underfunding can be seen through the lack of qualified substitutes when teachers are absent. This is one of the problems the rally focused on, among the fact that teachers use money out of their own pockets to purchase materials their schools don’t provide.

In contrast to the incident in Polk County, Brevard County had a more positive outlook on the situation and stepped in when a large amount of teachers planned to take the day off of work for the rally. Their county supplied members from the Brevard County School Board and superintendent Mark Mullins to fill in the substitute positions at neighboring public schools on Monday, the day of the rally.

However, the local response was not as supportive. The Brevard Times, published an article containing the names of 100 teachers who were in attendance at the rally. The story implied that the teachers attending were neglecting their responsibilities by not showing up to school.

“This is America. We still have freedom of speech and people still should be able to have the right to assemble, those are constitutionally guaranteed,” Brevard County teacher Joe Scott said.

Educational activists started their speeches at 2 p.m. as large groups of people made the trek to the capitol building where multiple speakers presented their perspective on the public school situation in Florida. A few select speakers even traveled from New York and Chicago to support and encourage the efforts of Floridians to raise public school funding. The speakers included a diverse range of school officials, teachers, students and other public education advocates. One specific speaker flew in to be able to present his speech to the roaring crowd - Civil Rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton.

“If this is the Sunshine state, why are our teachers in the shade?” Sharpton said during his speech in front of the Old Capitol Building.

The audience cheered each speaker on by raising their signs in the air, chanting and clapping. Many important leaders in the education community made an appearance at the demonstration.

“I expect lawmakers to create educational policies that we can all live by and that we can be proud of,” President of the Florida Education Association Frederick Ingram said. “The priority should be to educate every kid in every zip code in every school. Our goal is to tell lawmakers that all of these beautiful [teachers] work for kids, and they want to continue to do that. But they want the resources and they want the funds to do their job.”

Some signs displayed phrases and pictures while others showed the dark reality of what it’s like to be a teacher in Florida, a state with one of the lowest amounts of money allocated to education. One sign proclaimed, “I should not have to marry a sugar daddy to teach in Florida,” with another stating “They threatened to fire me for being here yet…here I am.”

“The goal is to make a difference in the lives of children, the lives of our patients and hospitals, the lives of our communities,” President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten said. “Kids don’t always become a priority in this country. Education helps [kids] build relationships, build resiliency and love.”

After listening to all the speakers, the protestors made their way back to the civic center before getting on their buses to head home. They were provided with a free boxed dinner and water bottles. Participants were also offered optional signs to take home that read “Fund Public Schools” and “Fund Our Future,” which were the most popular catchphrases from the rally.

The rally drew 15,000 participants, according to Joni Branch, the Public Relations and Communications Specialist of the Florida Education Association.

"I am proud of them for standing up for something that they deserve," Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior Hailey Carpenter said. "Teachers work so hard in and outside the classroom and they should be paid better than they are being paid now."

This Tallahassee rally was only the start of a long process of fixing the education system and has placed Florida at the attention of the nation. Now, the legislature has 60 days to make a decision on funding education - with the entire country watching.

Story by Lily Singer and Ivy Lam