Today, Governor Ron DeSantis announced sweeping proposals to protect Florida’s teachers and ensure that the groups seeking to represent them are acting in teachers’ best interests.
Florida has come a long way in advancing worker freedom, but more needs to be done. The James Madison Institute commends Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature for working to ensure that Florida teachers are able to freely join a union, are in no way coerced into joining or staying in a union, that union leaders are not fleeing Florida taxpayers, and that tax dollars are not spent doing union dues collection.
A 2019 poll conducted by The James Madison Institute and Workers for Opportunity showed the popularity and need for these changes. Over 70 percent of likely voters, including 63 percent of public sector union households, agree that the “government must get a government workers’ permission to deduct union dues from their paycheck.”
The Sunshine State has an opportunity in 2022 to illustrate its leadership by enacting reforms that advance the freedoms of choice, opportunity, and assembly for all public sector workers.
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The James Madison Institute is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the ideals of limited government, economic freedom, federalism and individual liberty coupled with individual responsibility. The institute conducts research on such issues as criminal justice, health care, taxes and regulatory environments.
