Parents Get a Bigger Say in Florida Education

Anyone who remembers their school years or has a student in the current educational system know that it is dominated by Democrats and Liberals.  According Public Policy Polling, across America 56% of teachers are Democrat while only 36% are Republican.  When you consider that Gallup has the national party affiliation (as of June 2017) at 30/26 Democrat to Republican, it shows almost twice as many Democrats go into education as they exist at the national level.  

In some states, the disparity is even more pronounced with states like California and New York, whose teachers are nearly 80% Democrat. In addition, our University system is so skewed in partisan ideology as to create bastions of liberal orthodoxy coupled with violence towards any voice of dissent.  I need only cite Berkeley to prove my point.  The reason I am bringing this up is to explain an on-going controversy in the state of Florida.

In the state of Florida, the party disparity is 70/30 Democrat to Republican.  It Is no secret that the education system shuns religious teachings (except of course Islam which has weeks’ worth of required teaching in World History) and promote their ideology without the need to debate opposing viewpoints.  

All of that changed this week when the Florida Legislature passed a bill allowing for third party hearing officers to hear complaints about school curricula.  In addition, it allows complaints to be filed against said curricula from individuals who do not have a student in the system.  This of course has had some loud proponents and opponents.

Opponents, obviously of the liberal persuasion, claim that the bill is specifically targeting three topics: evolution, climate change, and sexuality.  The first one, evolution, has been taught in school for decades but its opposing view point, dubbed creationism, is never mentioned.  This would make sense in the abstract as evolution is a scientific pursuit where creationism is based on religion.  However, the two are not entirely exclusive.  

Did humanity evolve from lesser hominids?  Even if the answer is yes, does that dispute creationism (Catholic doctrine says no!)? Could a higher being, God, have initiated such evolution or set things into motion for such things to take place? 

These are legitimate questions especially if we are to have a broad debate.  However, that is not what you get.  Science teachers teach evolution and then go on to often mock or denigrate anyone who voices even a contributing creationist theory.  The state is saying that all ideas are welcome, not just those of progressivism.

Let’s say, for argument, the liberals are right and you shouldn’t infuse religion into education but rather that should be taught at one’s religious institution.  Then the second topic is one of interest.  It is the belief of this writer that environmentalism and the concept of Climate Change is a form of religion.  These people worship the Earth, even referring to it as their “mother”, and indoctrinate kids to equally worship at the altar of environmentalism.   They celebrate Earth Day, they go on field trips where they perform labor on behalf of that worship. 

Finally, anyone, and I mean anyone, who dares voices an opposing viewpoint on climate change is proclaimed essentially a heretic (they use the word “denier”) and attacked.  This doesn’t just go for students but teachers as well.  We have seen in recent years people even suggesting that people be fired or even ARRESTED (Bill Nye) for denying climate change.  What about their evolution?  Hasn’t the environment gone through radical changes in temperature without the benefit of heavy industry?  How can an entity that is 4.6 billion years old (accordingly) suddenly begin to wither over 200 years of heavy industry?

Why have they constantly changed their narrative?  First it was Global Cooling, then Global Warming, now Climate Change.  This bill would allow those dissenting voices, which have grown louder with news of fake climate data and political pressure on scientists to get in line, to have a say in the curriculum.

As for Sex Education, this argument is about as classic as apple pie.  Parents have long been the guides in the development of a young man or woman’s sexual growth and knowledge.  However, that has become domain of our education system because they claim parents don’t teach it right.  

Really?  You mean they don’t teach BDSM, fisting, and homosexual sex to their Middle Schooler?  Yes, that is correct in certain curricula these topics are taught.  This bill allows parents to object to things they view as pornographic.  I am all for explaining the anatomy of how sex leads to children, but I don’t think it’s necessary to teach schoolchildren how to safely enjoy BDSM. 

Proponents of the bill point to the fact that these objection procedures are on the books but are often arbitrated by the same biased educational administrators that promoted the curriculum to begin with. This bill would remove that bias by allowing for an impartial third party during the hearing.  

Why are liberals worried? If atheism and evolution proven, then surely a robust debate would do nothing to alter that.  If environmentalism is “settled science” then surely anyone who has an opposing view should not be able to undermine those “facts”, right? This bill has given parents and community advocates a greater voice in the education of our youth.

Not only that, it has finally given some level of protection to those who do not tow the liberal line.

Editor’s note:  Nobody really wants education to be in the hands of Washington D.C. politicians. We have decided as a nation that education is a local issue, largely funded by local taxes and under loca control.  The Florida law allows an individual who pays taxes to have a voice in how local education is implemented in his/her community.