Broward Teachers Union Local 1975 (BTU) is a labor union that claims to represent over 10,000 educators in Broward County, Florida. It is an affiliate union of the left-of-center American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the AFL-CIO, though it also claims to be affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA) and its Florida affiliate, the Florida Education Association (FEA). ¹

BTU supports left-of-center education policy, advocating for increased public school funding and decreased public support for school choice programs. ^{2 3} Following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a Broward County school, BTU supported the implementation of left-of-center gun control policy. ⁴ The union also supports the controversial left-of-center Black Lives Matter movement. ⁵

BTU has been active in supporting left-of-center policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, BTU sued the Broward County School District for mandating that all teachers return to teaching in classrooms. ⁶ In August 2021, BTU supported a measure by the Broward County School Board to mandate masks for all students, staff, and visitors in school in defiance of a ban on mask mandates imposed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL). ⁷

BTU leaders have been embroiled in numerous controversies and criminal investigations. In 2001, then-BTU president Tony Gentile was criminally charged in a child pornography sting and would plead guilty to arranging a “sexual tryst” with an undercover police officer he thought was a teenage girl. ⁸ His replacement, former BTU president Pat Santeramo, was sentenced to over 6 years in prison in 2016 for defrauding the union of hundreds of thousands of dollars. ⁹

Political Advocacy

The Broward Teachers Union has frequently supported left-of-center education policy and has adopted left-of-center positions that are ostensibly unrelated to education. As of September 2021, , BTU expresses its support for the controversial left-of-center Black Lives Matter movement at the top of its website homepage. ¹⁰

BTU has routinely called for increased funding for public schools in Florida. In 2019, it participated in the “Fund Our Future” bus tour, a five-week protest sponsored by the Florida Education Association (FEA) to demand over $2.4 billion in increased public education funding in Florida, including $1 billion for teacher pay raises. ¹¹ BTU has also supported national campaigns led by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) to limit the use of students’ standardized test scores in teacher evaluations. ¹²

In February 2020, during contract negotiations with the district, BTU members protested in support of an additional 5 percent raise, despite having received a 7 percent raise just months earlier due to a successful ballot referendum on teacher pay. ¹³ Union members claimed that the district had “lied” to them about pay raises and argued in support of an automatic annual raise for teachers. ¹⁴

While demanding increased funding for public schools, BTU has called for decreased funding for charter schools and other school choice programs, claiming that state funding should not go to schools that are not state controlled. ¹⁵

BTU has also supported the implementation of strict gun control policy, following the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. Almost immediately after the shooting, BTU hosted a rally with left-of-center organizations—including Moms Demand Action, the League of Women Voters, and the Women’s March—calling for bans on rifles in common use (the so-called “assault weapons”). ¹⁶ BTU members also attended the national March for Our Lives protest that year in support of the implementation of left-of-center gun control policy. ¹⁷ BTU has also opposed calls to arm teachers or other staff members in schools to prevent school shootings. ¹⁸

COVID-19 Activism

Broward Teachers Union has been active in pushing left-of-center COVID-19 policy in Florida, even defying state mandates. As early as March 13, 2020, BTU pushed for school closures, and the union has supported continued school lockdowns throughout the pandemic. ¹⁹

In-Person Learning

In October 2020, when teachers first returned to in-person classroom instruction to remote students in Florida, BTU president Anna Fusco had to be escorted out of a Broward County School Board meeting after her rant about the risk of COVID-19 for educators, shouting at board members and claiming that they were needlessly putting teachers at risk. ²⁰

In early January 2021, as Florida sought a full return to in-person learning, BTU filed a suit against the school district, demanding that all teachers who had been teaching at home due to health concerns must not be required to return to classrooms. At the time of the lawsuit, most BTU members had already returned to classrooms, but the lawsuit claimed that forcing all teachers to return put those with health concerns at serious risk. ²¹

Shortly after filing the lawsuit, BTU partnered with the American Federation of Teachers for a six-figure radio advertising campaign opposing the return to classroom instruction. The advertisement alleged that Superintendent Robert Runcie was forcing “medically high-risk teachers into environments that threaten their health and could endanger their lives.” ²²

Later that January, the case went to arbitration, and an arbitrator ruled in support of the district, requiring that all teachers return to classrooms while giving principals discretion to allow some teachers to continue to teach remotely for health reasons for documented health needs. ²³

Even following the decision, BTU protested the return to in-person schooling. The union led a series of campaigns, including buying billboards, claiming that forcing teachers to return to classrooms was unnecessary due to the number of students who elected not return to in-person learning. ²⁴ BTU president Fusco claimed that teachers’ lives were “not being valued,” despite Superintendent Runcie’s decision to allow more than 600 teachers to continue to teach remotely for health reasons. ²⁵

Mask and Vaccine Mandate Controversies

In August 2021, BTU supported a decision by the Broward County School Board to make masks mandatory for all students, staff, and visitors in school district buildings, including classrooms. The vote directly defied Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who had issued an executive order banning school districts from imposing universal mask mandates and threatened to withhold pay from school district officials who violated the order. ²⁶

Days after the vote, the Florida State Board of Education voted unanimously to punish the Broward County School Board for defying the order, saying that it would deduct the monthly salaries of school board members if they refused to reverse the order within 48 hours. ^{27 28}

The debate over the mask mandate even reached the federal government, with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona vowing to support school districts that imposed mask mandates. Cardona also said that the civil rights division of the Department of Education would “investigate” complaints that Florida did not provide “access to a safe learning environment” due to the ban on mask mandates. ²⁹ Broward voted to uphold the mask mandate, despite cuts to funding. ³⁰

BTU has wavered on its position on mandated vaccinations. In August 2021, BTU president Fusco said that the union “would not stand in the way of” mandating vaccinations for Broward educators and school staff, and she expressed support for subjecting all unvaccinated teachers to mandated regular testing. ^{31 32} Yet one month later, in September 2021, Fusco said she was “not in favor” of any vaccine mandates for educators. ³³

Misleading COVID-19 Statements

In August 2021, BTU came under fire for announcing that four Broward educators had died of COVID-19 while expressing concerns about the safety of returning to classrooms. Critics alleged that the report was misleading, as it was used to argue in support of more stringent classroom requirements to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. ³⁴ The union later corrected this number, clarifying that just three teachers had died, and that the deaths occurred prior to the start of the school year and were unrelated to transmission in schools.

After schools reopened in August 2021, BTU claimed that there were teacher shortages due to new social distancing measures and argued that increasing teacher pay would make hiring new educators easier. ³⁵

Criminal Charges and Convictions

The Broward Teachers Union has been embroiled in several criminal controversies. In 2001, then-BTU president Tony Gentile was charged in a child pornography case. Pat Santeramo became president following his arrest, and he held the position until he too was ousted in 2011. At the time, Santeramo was also a vice president with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). ^{36 37}

In 2011, BTU faced another scandal when then-BTU president Santeramo was accused of irresponsibly spending $3.8 million of reserved union funding over the six years prior to 2011, leading other union members to call for his resignation. Santeramo had spent tens of thousands on hotel rooms, liquor, and expensive restaurants, even as state and national union dues increased, which left BTU with little remaining funding. ³⁸ Santeramo resigned in December 2011. ³⁹

Just six months following his resignation, Santeramo was charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars in union funding. The criminal case alleged that Santeramo had gotten thousands in kickbacks from construction deals that he started, which he used to purchase vacation homes and bolster his own earnings. ⁴⁰

In January 2016, a jury in Broward County Circuit Court convicted Santeramo of grand theft, money laundering, running an organized scheme to defraud, and campaign finance violations after deciding that he had taken over $160,000 in kickbacks and defrauded BTU. The jury also found that Santeramo had illegally reimbursed employees who made contributions to his preferred candidates. ⁴¹ In April 2016, Santeramo was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison, followed by five years of probation on state and federal charges. ⁴²

Current BTU president Anna Fusco has also had run-ins with Florida law enforcement. In May 2018, Fusco visited Olsen Middle School alongside other union representatives without permission from the school’s principal to investigate alleged “problems” at the school. Broward County Sherriff’s deputies had to escort Fusco from the school building. ⁴³

Support for Teachers Accused of Sexual Misconduct

The Broward Teachers Union routinely supports educators accused of misconduct, including sexual abuse. In 2019, investigators found that more than a dozen teachers in South Florida kept their teaching licenses after being fired, arrested, or convicted after allegations of sexual misconduct towards students. These included teachers who had molested students as young as 8 and admitted to possessing child pornography. ⁴⁴

In response to the investigation, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran implemented a rule which gave school districts 24 hours to report certified staff members facing criminal charges or serious allegations, so that the state could suspend their certifications. ⁴⁵

BTU spoke out against the measure, claiming that teachers had the “right to due process” and should not have their certificates suspended due to allegations, even when facing allegations of kidnapping, rape, or murder as required by Corcoran’s rule. BTU claimed that the system did not give the district enough time to gather evidence, defending teachers and claiming that teachers facing allegations could “move and continue to do a job” without “direct interaction with students,” rather than being suspended. ⁴⁶

BTU has also directly represented teachers accused of sexual misconduct. In 2020, Broward teacher Krishna Boodhoo lost his job after at least seven 5th grade girls accused him of sexual abuse. After the state’s Attorney General declined to prosecute Boodhoo, BTU represented him in a March 2021 case to appeal his firing. ⁴⁷

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