In response to a collection of education-related laws recently enacted in Florida, Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said in his news release,

This new law grossly oversteps in trying to silence teachers, staff, professors, and most other public employees. We will not go quietly….

Here’s some of what those silencing laws do:

• allow teachers to require students to hand over their phones at the beginning of class
• ban the use of TikTok on school Wi-Fi and networks
• does not allow students to use school internet to access social media (with some exceptions)
• block classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity for all grades
• bar availability of certain sexual books in school libraries
• prevent students and teachers from being required to use certain pronouns
• prohibit diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in state colleges
• allow teachers to leave school unions for any reason
• State budget provides an increase in teacher pay—fourth year in a row

Not misinformation—disinformation. Go quietly, or go noisily, but maybe Florida’s teachers unions need to go. Let the teachers themselves form new unions from the ground up, or not, at the teachers’ own discretion.