Male lawmaker who proposed cutting pay for mostly female school board members has retreated

State Rep. Sam Garrison changed his legislation on cutting pay for mostly female school board members following some “good dialogue” with his colleagues in the Legislature, according to conversation in a committee meeting earlier this week.

Garrison, an attorney and a Republican representing part of Clay County in northeast Florida, was pushing legislation that would have proposed a Constitutional amendment to prohibit compensation for school board members, even though legislators, county commissioners and other elected officials wouldn’t be targeted.

They’d get their salaries. But school board members wouldn’t, potentially a way of undervaluing work performed in female-associated careers such as education. In fact, the Phoenix found several examples of all female school board members in Florida.

In that regard, the legislation that Garrison had been pursuing could be seen at best unfair and worse, discriminatory, given that women often sit on school boards more than their male counterparts.

Read more: https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2021/04/16/male-lawmaker-who-proposed-cutting-pay-for-mostly-female-school-board-members-has-retreated/


Republican State Rep. Sam Garrison. Credit. Florida House of Representatives.