Tallahassee, FL — Yesterday Apryl Shackelford, a Teacher of the Year finalist from Duval County, came forward to express her outrage that the Republican Party of Florida used her in a political ad supporting Governor Scott. The footage, taken from a reception for Teacher of the Year finalists, was filmed using public dollars. Several other Florida Teacher of the Year candidates have also spoken out to say that they had no idea their interviews would be used by the Republicans to score political points.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be in any political ad,” Shackelford said to the Tampa Tribune. “It’s inappropriate…”

“It is shameful that the Republican Party of Florida had to stoop to editing interviews and using taxpayer funded footage to produce an ad without the participants’ knowledge to defend Rick Scott’s failed record on education,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Joshua Karp. “Teachers know better than most that Rick Scott cut funding for public schools by $1.3 billion dollars and cut educators’ pay in 2011. His record speaks for itself — that’s why the GOP is forced to duplicitously craft ads without teachers’ knowledge in a petty attempt to distract from the governor’s education failures.“