Category Education
Guest column: HB 1205: The End of Citizen-Led Ballot Initiatives, a Ballot Box Barricade
By Sierra Bush Rester Florida politicians have played a two-faced, cynical game with voters for decades. To our faces, they talk about freedom, how parents are heard, and how the Floridian Way matters. But when voters, Democrats and Republicans alike, pass citizen-led constitutional amendments that threaten their grip on power, those same politicians get to […]
Guest Column- School Choice, Public or Voucher the Results are the Same: Segregation
By Sierra Bush Rester In his recent op-ed, school board member Marcus Nicolas correctly points out that public school choice and private school vouchers differ. Public school choice keeps taxpayer dollars within the public system, while vouchers funnel public money into private institutions. However, while public school choice does less harm than vouchers, the distinction […]
Ben Sasse, Richard Corcoran and the quarter century of GOP debasement of Florida higher education
The recent revelations about the unprecedented levels of corruption (yes a loaded term but must be used here) of the Ben Sasse tenure as University of Florida President along with Richard Corcoran’s book-dumping at New College are the logical culmination of 25 years of Republican Party efforts to turn Florida’s State Universities into a repository […]
The textbook ban: some pressing questions
It appears that despite some recent reinstatement’s, per reports the recent textbook purge means only one publisher will be providing the bulk of math books available for Florida students from Kindergarten to the 5th Grade. Multiple reports have indicated that the only publisher that had been approved to offer the majority of K-5 math books in […]
“Parental rights” nonsense could lead to the Democrats nadir in Florida come November 2022
Democrats losing streak in Florida – 25 of the last 32 statewide races of any kind, 20 of the last 22 races for Governor or Cabinet could get MUCH worse in 2022 thanks to a new red-button issue from the right- “parental rights.” First off, let me say this is a red-herring from an actual […]
UF reverses course, but is the damage done?
President Kent Fuchs of the University of Florida, on Friday recommended reversing the university’s “conflict of interest”policy in addition to ordering a reversal on the voting rights case, but is it too little, too late to salvage UF’s reputation which has taken a major hit in the last two weeks? And for what it is […]
The University of Florida should be in DEEP trouble
When it rains it pours. To say the least the situation at the University of Florida is untenable. UF is operating as if it were small religious school with a political bent, aka Liberty University. When an academic institution loses its credibility and plays politics at multiple levels we assume its some small religious school […]
NPR: A look into the “grassroots” groups opposing masks , vaccines and CRT
A great piece from NPR looking deep into the groups that are funded by national interests but stir up local trouble for School Boards on a number of cultural hot-button issues including vaccines, masks and Critical Race Theory (CRT). These groups aren’t organic or in any manner a manifestation of grassroots sentiment. They are as […]
Guest column: Conscripting Troops for the Trump/DeSantis offensive
By Drake Buckman Editors note: A version of this column has run in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. It is reworked slightly and published here with permission from the author. This past week, 80,000 Sarasota parents will have to make one of the most difficult decisions of their lives. On Aug. 31, 43,000 children in Sarasota County […]
Parents and educators urge Governor Scott to veto HB 7069
Republican legislative leaders particularly House Speaker Richard Corcoran won a major battle with the passage of HB 7069 in the legislative session’s dying moments on Monday May 8. Today educators and parents across the state urged that the Governor veto the legislation. Normally, there would be faint hope that Governor Rick Scott would veto such […]
The Florida Squeeze 