Teachers unions have spent decades turning America's classrooms into political training grounds – and in Florida, they just got caught doing it in broad daylight.
Now the man running Florida's schools under Ron DeSantis isn't writing memos or scheduling hearings – he's publishing his direct office line and telling parents to call him personally the moment they find out a teacher is doing it again.
What Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas just threatened to do to those teachers is something no union boss in this country saw coming.
The Union That Lit the Fuse and Ran
Kamoutsas told the Florida Board of Education last week that teachers who spread anti-law enforcement material in school, hand out anti-ICE flyers on campus, or steer students toward the exits will be investigated and terminated.
Then he published his direct office line – 850-245-0438 – and told Floridians to use it.
At a February 5 press conference hosted by the Florida Education Association, a speaker stood at the FEA's podium and told the crowd that student walkouts disrupting school were "rational," "reasonable," and "required."
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2024115092824932774?s=20
Those aren't the words of a rogue activist who snuck onto a stage.
That was a speaker at a union-hosted press conference – and the FEA let it happen, distributed the event, and put their brand on it.
Now, with teachers staring down termination, FEA President Andrew Spar is suddenly insisting the union has never encouraged or organized student walkouts and that the speaker at their podium wasn't a union representative.
Kamoutsas isn't buying it.
"The union is pushing an agenda, and they're not actually advocating on behalf of the educators they purport to represent," he said on OAN this week.
He's right – and this isn't new behavior.
Teachers Unions Have Been Running This Playbook for Decades
The National Education Association – the FEA's parent organization – voted at its 2025 national convention to formally support students' right to "organize against ICE raids and deportations."
They also pledged to fight what they called Trump's "fascism" using NEA materials.
This is the same union that in 2019 defeated a resolution to "rededicate itself to the pursuit of increased student learning in every public school in America."
Not a priority.
What is a priority: turning Florida's children into street activists against federal law enforcement.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2025924130269254014?s=20
Kamoutsas has been hammering this theme since the walkouts started spreading across Brevard, Broward, and Seminole counties after ICE officers shot and killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good during enforcement operations in Minneapolis in January.
Hundreds of students across the country have already been suspended for participating – 122 in Oklahoma alone after the governor personally praised the superintendent who handed out the punishments.
Florida hasn't pulled the trigger on student suspensions yet, but Kamoutsas has made clear that teachers who pushed students toward the exits are a different story.
Florida Parents Already Voted With Their Feet
Here's what the FEA refuses to acknowledge: Florida parents have been fleeing union-controlled schools for years, and the numbers are staggering.
Of Florida's 2.8 million students, 1.4 million are now in school choice programs – half the entire student population.
In 2001, 86% of Florida students attended a traditional public school.
Today, that number has collapsed to 51%.
Parents aren't leaving because the teachers are bad.
They're leaving because the institution – run by the FEA and its allies – decided that activism matters more than algebra.
And thanks to Florida's universal school choice expansion in 2023, every family in the state now has access to roughly $8,000 in education savings account funding to take their child somewhere else.
The FEA has been fighting school choice for years, claiming it hurts public education.
What actually hurts public education is holding anti-ICE press conferences and then daring the state to do something about it.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2025325005542699239?s=20
The Union Went Too Far This Time
Kamoutsas has also introduced legislation – HB 995 and SB 1296 – that would force any union pursuing certification or recertification to secure written backing from at least 30% of its members a full year before filing.
Spar called the bills "anti-worker anti-freedom bills."
What they actually are: a direct response to a union that has drifted so far from its members that it's hosting press conferences calling for children to walk out of school to protest federal law enforcement.
They want to debate recertification thresholds while parents in their state are pulling 1.4 million kids out of the schools they claim to represent.
The union lit the fuse, handed it to children, and then ran when the adults showed up.
Kamoutsas isn't letting them forget it.
Sources:
- Michelle Vecerina, "'Educated, not indoctrinated': Kamoutsas targets Florida Education Association over school protests," Florida Politics, Feb. 23, 2026.
- Danielle Prieur, "Education Commissioner warns Florida teachers could be fired over 'anti-law enforcement' sentiments," Central Florida Public Media, Feb. 20, 2026.
- Gabrielle Russon, "Anastasios Kamoutsas continues hammering teachers union over student walkouts," APolitical, Feb. 20, 2026.
- "NEA teachers union puts leftist politics over education priorities at convention," Fox News, July 10, 2025.
- "As NEA commits to fight 'fascist' Trump, lawmakers target union's federal charter," Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, July 2025.
- "2026 EdChoice Share," EdChoice, January 2026.
- "Hundreds of students suspended, schools under close watch over anti-ICE walkouts," The Hill, Feb. 21, 2026.
