Florida Governor Ron DeSantis just saying
“Florida is #1 in education freedom. And we rank #1 in parental involvement in education. Florida also ranks #1 in public higher education. This is a record we can all be proud of. And we are far from done. … We must ensure school systems are responsive to parents and to students, not partisan interest groups, and we must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideology.”
Watch him here:
"We must ensure school systems are responsive to parents and to students, not partisan interest groups." – @GovRonDeSantis
No lies detected 🔥🔥🔥pic.twitter.com/URYnyHbdw6
— School Choice Boyz (@schoolchoicebyz) January 5, 2023
The Washington Post was predictably unimpressed, calling it his “latest oxymoronic school spiel”. People on Twitter, however, were quite excited about the new policy, saying things like, as you can see above “No lies detected.”
The latest step forward in protecting parental rights in Florida comes after DeSantis’ March of 2022 “Parental Rights in Education Bill”. Governor DeSantis himself, speaking on the bill at the time he signed it, said:
“Parents’ rights have been increasingly under assault around the nation, but in Florida we stand up for the rights of parents and the fundamental role they play in the education of their children. Parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school, and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old.”
Similarly, Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez said:
“Parental Rights in Education empowers Florida’s parents and safeguards our children. This bill refuses to allow school boards and teachers unions the ability to hide information about students from their parents. In addition, it prohibits classroom discussion in grades K-3 on gender orientation and sexual identity. Throughout this legislative session, this bill has been maliciously maligned by those who prefer slogans and sound bites over substance and common sense. Fortunately, Governor DeSantis and I believe that parents should have a say. We will not back down to woke corporations and their same tired tactics that are steeped in hypocrisy. As a mother of three, I am committed to protecting the rights of parents.”
Then there was Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, who made much the same point in his comments on the bill as DeSantis did in his speech, saying:
“Parents play the #1 role in a child’s life and I am thankful for the Governor, Legislature and so many parents who continue to stand up for parents’ rights to be the foremost authority involving their children. Greater parental involvement leads to a better quality of life for children and this important legislation helps ensure Florida’s great educators collaborate with parents to ensure students are learning and flourishing, and I am thankful for Governor DeSantis’ commitment to all of Florida’s 2.9 million public school students.”
DeSantis’s comments on education come as he is demanding that the higher education system in Florida hand over details on how much it spending on diversity programs, with the clear implication being that the state is about to cut funding by that amount to keep costs lower for students and diversity delusions out of Florida schools.
Featured image credit: screenshot from embedded video
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