After learning of a $5 million donation made by Florida Power to a private school scholarship program under the Sunshine State's new education tax credit law, the teachers union in Pinellas County, Florida has urged the local school board to shut off all power in county schools for a day as payback for the utility company. Florida Power was able to make the donation to the Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships for low-income children to attend private school, instead of paying the same amount in taxes. The president of the teachers union has requested that the board impose a mini power boycott; "turn off the lights, the air conditioners, the computers for a day or half a day" to make up for the money that the power company sent to "unregulated" and "unaccountable" private schools, money which is allegedly being taken away from essential state services like public education. The Pinellas County teachers union was last in the news in November 2001, when a court rejected its bid to stop schools from using funds from a state incentive program to pay bonuses to teachers. See "Pinellas Teachers Union, Utility in No-Power Struggle," by Lynn Porter, The Tampa Tribune, February 2, 2002, and "Union Loses Appeal to Ban Bonus Money for Teachers," by Gary Sprott, The Tampa Tribune, November 8, 2001
