Facebook’s role in debate over Senate Bill 6
As an educator, House 69 Rep. Keith Fitzgerald (D) was not sad about the death of Senate Bill 6, which dealt with pay scales for teachers.
On Friday, Fitzgerald posted a link on his Facebook accont to a Bradenton.com article about the role Facebook played in the debate over Senate Bill 6.
According to the article, legislators were checking a Facebook group about the bill all through the debate.
Fitzgerald was quoted in the article as saying, “I think this was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen, because there were legislators on the floor directly communicating with voters.”
The Facebook group, called Florida Teachers Against Pay-For-Performance Salary/Pay Scales, has more than 73,000 fans on the site and lists Gov. Charlie Crist’s executive office and campaign office contact information in an effort to encourage voters to call legislators and tell them to kill the bill.
Also on his Facebook, Fitzgerald commented, “I was just talking with Representative [Rick] Kriseman. We both think that the way our Democratic caucus rallied to fight SB 6 was one of the proudest moments in our service here. We knew that this was a big deal from the time the bill first showed up in committee. I said at the time that stopping SB 6 was our highest priority. We played our little part and it made the weeks away from our families worthwhile. It was our honor to fight for public education and the teachers.”
– Erin Jester
I generally base all of my political decisions, not to mention learn all pertinent political news, from Facebook and the News Feed. Good work, Fitz.