For Those Who Care About Educating "Our Children" for their future's success…
Author: Janis Sexton
Retired elementary public school teacher; all thirty-eight years in Florida... Now spending my time advocating for our children, and their right to strong public school education...With an appreciation for the arts, and the magic in each day✨...
Our governor, Ron DeSantis describes Florida as the “education state”…We definitely are not…Our schools are in crisis…
He will be putting more money in our schools, however because of his book bans, lack of inclusion and gun reform…We have a shortage of teachers…Our precious children are scared to come to school..
DeSantis called Florida’s budget the “capstone” of a highly successful legislative session as he signed the appropriations into law.
JOSH MILLER June 15, 2023 . 2:00 PM
FORT PIERCE, FLORIDA — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s “Framework for Freedom” budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year at a news conference in Fort Pierce.
“We’ve done more in the last six to eight months since the election than any – I think – state has done in our lifetime to move the ball forward and be bold and take on these issues, and that’s one of the reasons why people, you know, keep flooding down here,” DeSantis said, referring to people leaving other states to move to Florida…
But he also line-item vetoed more than half a billion in spending. The budget passed by the Legislature was $117 billion. In comparison, the original proposed budget by DeSantis was $114.8 billion.
On tax relief, DeSantis reminded Floridians of the “Freedom Summer” sales tax holiday that began in May. He also emphasized sales tax exemptions on baby and toddler items which start July 1, toll rebates and two hurricane-preparedness sales tax holidays that he says will save Floridians $144 million…
“We also in the budget include $130 million for targeted pay increases for people in state law enforcement and public safety agencies,” DeSantis said. “Different parts of the country have slashed police spending, attacked law enforcement – we’ve consistently in Florida stood by people in law enforcement, not only with good policy but also with good compensation.”
Lawmakers set K-12 funding at a record $26.8 billion, allocated $635 million toward workforce education programs and provided $1.1 billion in raises for teachers – money DeSantis said he didn’t want “going to bureaucracy or to unions.”
Mitigation response and recovery efforts total $2.3 billion in the budget, which includes funding to continue to cover costs associated with Hurricane Ian. But the governor also said the state had set aside $500 million for the state’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund to allow the state to respond quickly and cut through red tape as he did last year.
See the final veto list and the Governor’s transmittal letter below:
After holding the state budget hostage for weeks and failing to immediately disclose line-item vetoes, the governor finally took a break from running for president to do his actual job.
We must put our precious children first …This next presidential election is absolutely crucial for their advocacy…
Because of all this divisive, political rhetoric manifesting from our Governor Ron Desantis ,here in Florida…thus causing such an educational and emotional crisis on our precious children…
Ron Desantis is going national…
He is a contender in the 2024 presidential race…With his “woke” restrictive political rhetoric !
The governor revamped school curriculum in Florida amid battles with Democrats and civil rights groups…
“As president, I’m going to make sure woke ideology ends up in the dustbin of history,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. | Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP
By BIANCA QUILANTAN 05/26/2023 02:43 PM EDT
Ron DeSantis paved his political brand — and wound his way into conservative hearts — through Florida’s classrooms.
Get ready to hear about it on the campaign trail. A lot.
The presidential hopeful isn’t the first Republican governor to embrace “parental rights” or limit how race and gender are discussed in schools. But DeSantis has built a long legislative record as an “education governor” amid battles with Democrats and civil rights groups that endeared him to rank-and-file GOP voters. Now he’s planning to pitch that record across the nation in a bid to become the new leader of the Republican Party.
Since becoming governor in 2019, DeSantis earned the nickname among conservatives by codifying a “Parents Bill of Rights,” vastly expanding school choice, allowing for armed teachers, and advocating for new workforce education. He has also rolled back higher education diversity programs, engaged in a high-profile feud with the College Board over its African American studies course and worked with other Republicans to reshape higher education in Florida by installing key allies in statewide posts.
“Because it’s a war on truth, I think we have no choice but to wage a war on woke,”
DeSantis said on Fox News Wednesday when discussing what role the president should play in education-related culture war issue…
“In Florida, we say we’re the state where woke goes to die,” he later added. “As president, I’m going to make sure woke ideology ends up in the dustbin of history.”
DeSantis’ moves are similar to Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.), who won election in a battleground state by emphasizing parental rights in education as Covid-driven school closures frustrated families across the political spectrum.
But Florida now has the most sweeping set of restrictions on classroom discussions about race and gender in the nation. It’s also inspired conservatives in dozens of states, including Texas, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas, to duplicate these laws…
Here are several key DeSantis-backed Florida laws or efforts that have caught the attention of other red states…
Pushing Parent’s Bill of Rights
The Florida Parental Rights in Education Act that took effect last year and was billed as an effort to give parents more control over what their children learn at school after the pandemic increased scrutiny of K-12 education.
Opponents of the measure have dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay” law because it bars educators from teaching lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity. This legislative session, GOP lawmakers bolstered the law by including restrictions on using a student’s pronouns if they “do not correspond” with their sex assigned at birth. Schools are also now required to pull books that are challenged within five days of someone flagging it.
At least 10 states have measures that mention parental rights, and the majority of states have seen proposals to do so in their statehouses.
House Republicans this year also approved a sweeping “Parents Bill of Rights” legislation, which has become the cornerstone of the GOP’s education agenda. It outlines what parents have the right to in their children’s education, including access to teacher-parent meetings, school budget materials, curriculum and books, and the opportunity to testify before a school board.
Endorsing in traditionally nonpartisan school board races
DeSantis wielded his political influence in school board races across the state funneling more than $2 million into school board races in 2022. His campaign helped two dozen conservative candidates win their races, and the governor has said he intends to continue flipping seats in future elections.
DeSantis’ endorsements have become a key pillar of how the governor has reshaped the education landscape in the country’s third-most populous state.
He backed 30 conservative school board candidates and homed in on races in school districts where incumbents opposed GOP policies. DeSantis’ political committee also sent $1,000 to each of his endorsees, and many landed more contributions from GOP lawmakers.
“For too long, these school boards have not reflected the values of the communities that they were supposedly elected to serve,” DeSantis said in December at a training event for school board members dubbed the “Freedom Blueprint.”
Restricting lessons on race
DeSantis pushed the Individual Freedom Act — referred to as the Stop-WOKE Act — in 2022 which limits the way gender and race are discussed in classrooms and workplaces. Under the Individual Freedom Act, teachers are barred from teaching lessons that would make students “feel guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” due to their race, color, sex or national origin.
Specifically requested by DeSantis, the law prohibits instruction on issues like “white privilege.” Critics of the legislation argued that the policy attempts to reframe or “whitewash” history.
“We are not going to tell some kindergartener that they’re an oppressor based on their race and what may have happened 100 or 200 years ago,” DeSantis said last year. “And we’re not going to tell other kids that they’re oppressed based on their race.”
While the law has been mired with legal challenges, the DeSantis administration has been using its law to reject the College Board’s new AP African American studies course. DeSantis has pushed for the changes in the course after slamming the nonprofit testmaker for including lessons on queer theory and intersectionality.
Florida lawmakers have since been weighing creating state-based courses and exams for college credit…
Bucking diversity, equity and inclusion DeSantis’ latest feat is barring Florida colleges and universities from spending on most diversity, equity and inclusion programs under a slate of higher education reforms.
“Florida has ranked number one in higher education for seven years in a row, and by signing this legislation we are ensuring that Florida’s institutions encourage diversity of thought, civil discourse, and the pursuit of truth for generations to come,” DeSantis said in a statement…
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has also been shepherding legislation to require public universities to shutter their DEI offices and ban diversity training. | Eric Gay/AP Photo
Florida is purging subjects like critical race theory and “DEI-infused” coursework from its schools, and university leaders are primed to take on a wide-scale review of courses and majors offered to students with lessons that assert “systemic racism, sexism, oppression and privilege.”
The legislation has influenced Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in Texas who have been shepherding legislation to require public universities to shutter their DEI offices and ban diversity training and hiring statements.
Banning school-related Covid mandates
DeSantis’ moves during the pandemic arguably pushed him into the national spotlight and increased his viability for a presidential run.
The governor did not shy away from sparring with schools to get students back into the classroom for in-person instruction after the pandemic shuttered campuses. He tangled in court with the Florida Education Association, the teachers union in the state, over reopening schools and drew criticism for pressuring schools into reopening for in-person instruction by threatening to withhold funding for some…
He sharply rebuked school-related covid mandates, like requiring masks, by issuing an executive order that left mask decisions up to parents. He leaned on parental rights to “make health care decisions for their minor children.”
DeSantis also later made headlines for encouraging students at an event to remove their masks, calling it “ridiculous” and “Covid theater.”
Now that Covid-19 has waned, DeSantis-backed school board members have been purging some educational leaders who enforced pandemic mandates.
By: Stephanie Susskind Posted at 5:01 PM, May 25, 2023 and last updated 2023-05-25 17:01:56-04 WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —
Retired almost nine years from my thirty-eight year, Florida teaching career…
From my own personal experience here in Florida; We must be extremely concerned… Governor Ron DeSantis most definitely is not a unifier…He promotes such a polarizing agenda only for his benefit…He is an ill equipped governor…
He does not care about all the dangerous repercussions on our precious children …
We must protect our precious children… and Vote!!
We must be extremely aware and not allow him to become our next president!!
With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially in the race for president, WPTV is taking a deeper look at his education policies — some of which have been his most controversial — to see how they would stack up nationally.
Restricting discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity and targeting critical race theory are just some of what DeSantis would call his victories over the past few years.
But not everyone would agree…
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Education
“We’ve had a few decades now of fundamental changes in education in Florida, but no one has moved as hard or as fast as Ron DeSantis,” WPTV political analyst Brian Crowley said.
Crowley said the two-term Republican governor is known across the country for his aggressive approach to education reform…
“Ron DeSantis made it clear that if he becomes president, he plans to bring these reforms nationwide,” Crowley said. “Use the power of the federal dollar, federal grants, and even accreditation of colleges as a way of enforcing his agenda for how he wants to make schools more conservative and, in his view, back to basic learning.”
Some of DeSantis’ decisions have been celebrated across party lines, like eliminating Common Core standards…
But the culture wars have caused a divide.
“When you vilify teachers and staff, when you limit their ability to do what they know is best for students, they’re not going to stay,” said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association.
Spar said much of the contentious legislation in Florida is leading to a critical teacher shortage.
But Moms For Liberty member Jennifer Pippin supports the governor’s moves.
“This is great for education. It’s great for parental rights,” Pippin said. “I absolutely think he will take his policies and the things he’s been advocating for nationwide.”
But will it work?
The non-profit free speech organization PEN America researched what it called “educational gag orders” in August of 2022, looking at legislative efforts to restrict teaching certain topics.
The study showed 36 different states introduced 137 of these bills in 2022. But only six states passed them….
“There’s some really huge changes underway, and I think in some of those states that are very cautious about those changes, Ron DeSantis is going to have to be very careful if he wins the nomination to bring those people to his side,” Crowley said.
And decide what direction they want for our nation’s schools.
“We’re suddenly hearing Donald Trump talk a little bit more about the anti-woke issues and other conservative issues that were not big on his agenda when he first ran, or when he ran in 2020,” Crowley said. “But he understands this is a hot button issue among hardcore conservatives.”
Back when I was getting ready for retirement… summer of 2014, Florida was heading in crisis… Reflecting back then….
My first thought, this year especially, is acknowledging how exhausted I am; All the extra demands of testing and keeping up the pace of a more challenging curriculum…While striving to keep the children motivated and engaged…
I do also worry how my children spend their summer’s free time…
Throughout the school year, I spent my teaching time encouraging them the “love of reading”; encouraging parents to take their child to the public library…And now with this extra time, I so do hope my parents “if” they have the time in their challenging lives… to take their child to the public library… to become the owner of their personal library card, that will open up their “World” to all the joys of the Public Library; Summer Programs..Movies…Reading Books…And free Computer time!
There’s definitely a loss of our precious children’s innocence…
How these last nine years have definitely manifested into that crisis…Due to the authoritarian government lead by our governor, Ron DeSantis…
Teacher shortages due to lack of pay and authoritarian policies Book Bans Lack of inclusion Funding our public schools…with critical mental health and free meal resources… Gun safety reform…
Florida students and teachers will no longer have to “declare” their pronouns in school or be forced to use pronouns not based on biological sex.
There is definitely a loss of innocence… Because: Your Divisive Political Policies Teacher shortages Book Bans Lack of inclusion Funding our public schools…with critical mental health and free meal resources… Gun safety reform… https://t.co/t1JY639J6t
"I showed it because of its earth elements…It shows how the Earth really is alive. It has a heart in this movie."
— Jenna Barbee, a Florida teacher under investigation for showing Disney's 'Strange World' with a biracial, gay character, defends her choice to show the PG film pic.twitter.com/U7XIZfkqpx
And this is what our Florida’s teachers are up against…
This summer must be that time for reflection…And begin this critical moment for change…Our public schools must be strong and vital…To survive and thrive!!
Today, on the eve of Earth Day, we’re announcing $562 million in funds to make communities more resilient in the face of climate change.
Thanks to @POTUS’ Investing in America Agenda, we’re building a climate-ready nation and creating good-paying jobs across the country. pic.twitter.com/WusT3RD3U2
Janis Sexton...Teacher...Advocate 