With a sign on the podium declaring that “Florida is the Education State,” Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference before signing two bills at Fort Myers High School on Friday morning.

Senate Bill 1296 requires 60 percent participation in public sector unions for the union to be certified. If 60 percent is not achieved, the union can petition for an election. At that point, 50 percent of the whole group of possible members must participate in the election and half of that number must join in order to engage in collective bargaining.

DeSantis had few good words to say about unions in Florida.

"If you look at one thing that conservatives have complained about in terms of education in the United States of America over the past 30-40 years it has been the role and influence that partisan teachers unions play in our public education system," he said. "Their responsibility isn’t for the kids, the parents, the taxpayers, none of that. It’s those members."

The news did not sit well with Lee County teachers union president Kevin Daly. Presently, about 59 percent of possible members belong to the union, although that number changes every day.

"We’re always concerned when lawmakers kind of come up with these arbitrary and capricious kind of rules concerning what citizens can do in the free state of Florida, right?
And, you know, even if we make it, that's great.

"But it still has this sword of Damocles hanging above our heads, right?

"And the idea that the state is allowed to restrict who freely associates and what level of participation that association has to have to be legitimate," he said.

The second bill, House Bill 1279, will provide pay incentives to high-performing teachers who choose to teach at low-performing schools.