Four days ago, Ron DeSantis signed legislation that could decertify the Florida Education Association entirely.
Tuesday, the FEA filed a lawsuit to strip 1.4 million children of their opportunity scholarships.
You do the math.
What the FEA Actually Filed
The Florida Education Association filed a 39-page lawsuit in Leon County targeting Florida's Family Empowerment Scholarship program.
The union wants a court to declare the entire school choice system unconstitutional.
The legal argument is that private and charter schools don't meet Florida's constitutional mandate for a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools."
FEA President Andrew Spar held a press conference in front of the Historic Capitol to announce the suit.
"This lawsuit is a last resort," Spar said.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2050325386303824349?s=20
His last resort is eliminating opportunity scholarships for 1.4 million Florida children.
In the 2024-25 fiscal year alone, Florida distributed $3.17 billion in Family Empowerment Scholarships and another $804.5 million through corporate tax credit programs – nearly $4 billion helping children escape schools that weren't working for them.
The FEA wants a judge to shut it all down.
Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas responded the same day on social media.
"We stand unapologetically convicted on the principle of always putting students first," Kamoutsas said.
The Real Reason for This Lawsuit
The Florida teachers union isn't suing because children are being harmed.
They're suing because children are leaving – and DeSantis just came for the union itself.
Four days before this lawsuit was filed, DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1296 at Fort Myers High School.
The bill creates a process to decertify teacher unions that can't demonstrate genuine majority support from their own members.
"We should not have these entities operating if they do not have support from the people they purport to represent," DeSantis said.
Spar called the signing "yet another entry in a long line of betrayals of working Floridians."
Four days later, Spar filed this lawsuit.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2050240624603861285?s=20
Every student who redeems an opportunity scholarship is a student whose per-pupil funding follows them out the door – and out from under union control.
The FEA's membership depends on public school enrollment.
Its political power depends on that membership.
Its ability to fund Democrat candidates depends on that political power.
A school choice program serving 1.4 million students, combined with a decertification law, is an existential threat to everything the FEA controls.
That's the timeline.
This Has Been Tried Before
Florida's teachers union has been down this road and lost.
In 2006, the Florida Supreme Court struck down Governor Jeb Bush's school choice program on nearly identical constitutional grounds.
The legislature rebuilt the program through corporate tax credits, expanded it year after year, and made it universal in 2023.
Every time the union challenged the program, the program survived.
The Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Carson v. Makin effectively closed the door on the strongest version of this argument – holding that states cannot exclude private schools from generally available benefit programs.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2050208114511904780?s=20
The FEA is now attempting a state constitutional argument, hoping a Leon County judge overrides what the U.S. Supreme Court already settled.
Under DeSantis, Florida has ranked first in the nation in education in two of the last three years.
The union is asking a court to dismantle what built that ranking.
DeSantis Already Has His Answer
Ron DeSantis just signed a law to decertify unions that lack genuine support.
He also built the school choice system they're attacking.
And he is not a governor who backs down when unions sue him.
DeSantis pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as proof of what unions actually prioritize – noting that Florida kept schools open while union leaders across the country pushed for closures.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2052029143819112933?s=20
"They sued me to try to close the schools," he said.
They're suing him again.
The FEA filed this lawsuit during Teacher Appreciation Week, four days after losing a major legislative fight, while staring at a decertification law that could strip them of their institutional power.
DeSantis beat them on reopening schools.
He beat them on school choice expansion.
He beat them on union accountability.
The FEA is 0 for 3 – and they just went to court again.
Sources:
- Jay Waagmeester, "Education union claims school choice system is unconstitutional, files suit," Florida Phoenix, May 5, 2026.
- Governor Ron DeSantis, "Governor DeSantis Signs Landmark Reforms to Support Education and Hold School Unions Accountable," Executive Office of the Governor, May 1, 2026.
- Florida Department of Education, Family Empowerment Scholarship Program fiscal data, 2024-25.
- Carson v. Makin, 596 U.S. 767 (2022), U.S. Supreme Court, June 21, 2022.
- Bush v. Holmes, 919 So. 2d 392 (Fla. 2006), Florida Supreme Court.
