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Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis fired up his supporters during a speech Tuesday in the city of New Port Richey, where he was discussing the Sunshine State’s education system.
After declaring that Florida “is the place where ‘woke’ goes to die,” the Republican governor and current frontrunner ahead of November’s gubernatorial election, according to polling, went on to tout advancements in education and other areas during his first term, according to WFLA.
The outlet noted:
During the news conference, DeSantis spoke about reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, not forcing students to be vaccinated, and the state’s viewpoint that pandemic lockdown efforts should be focused on science and data, not on political ideology and partisan strategies.
He said places like Washington, D.C., had retained vaccination requirements, at the expense of excluding children from school based on “a mandate that has no basis in science or fact.” The governor said lockdown policies hurt low-income students the most.
DeSantis also said he and the GOP-controlled legislature remain committed to pushing back on highly divisive curricula such as critical race theory and radical left-wing gender ideology.
“Obviously in the classroom, we’ve battled a lot of ideologies. What I’ve said is the state of Florida is the place where woke goes to die. We are not going to let this state descend into some type of woke dumpster fire. We’re going to be following common sense, we’re going to be following facts,” DeSantis told the crowd.
He also made some remarks regarding the way today’s teachers are educated.
“I think these schools of education and the specific way they go about, I don’t think is the right way to do it. I don’t think these schools have proven to be effective. I think what you do is you get people that have proficiency in core academic disciplines, then you have them go in. But trying to teach them at certain schools of education, I think that’s been overtaken by ideology. I think that’s a turn-off for a lot of people,” the governor added.
Earlier in the year, the GOP governor signed HB 1557, known as the Parental Rights in Education bill, which barred teaching about sexual orientation and pushing gender identity ideology on students from kindergarten to the third grade.
“Our mantra has been, in our schools, to educate kids, not indoctrinate kids. what we’re doing is saying that teaching is not about learning ‘education in college or university,’ it’s really about having proficiency in subjects, then learning on the ground about how to do it,” DeSantis said.
At one point, DeSantis also addressed questions from the crowd, including one person who asked about reports that the state was considering using teachers from foreign countries to address a shortage in the state.
“With everything, I think that we’re putting Floridians first, we’re putting Americans first. If we have a qualified teacher in the United States or in Florida, I don’t want to go with a foreigner over somebody that’s from our communities,” DeSantis said. “There’s nothing wrong with, in some situations, I don’t know how it would work, with what they’re doing, but clearly we believe in putting the people here in Florida first. Our programs are designed to benefit Floridians, not people in other countries.”
He also opined that most people who want to teach as a profession do so to help students, not to be “a cog in some indoctrination machine.”
“Hopefully what we’re doing is saying that teaching is not about learning ‘education in college or university,’ it’s really about having proficiency in subjects, then learning on the ground about how to do it.”’
As a way to help alleviate teacher shortages, DeSantis has been encouraging veterans along with retired police officers and other first responders to get into the field of education.
On Wednesday, the state Board of Education “will consider a rule to formally implement a program for veterans to receive a five-year temporary education certificate while they finish their bachelor’s degree, provided they meet certain criteria,” according to a press release from his office.
“We also know that our veterans have talents and skills that they can offer our students. This new opportunity expands Florida’s existing programs that help our veterans take their talents to our schools, and it will help Florida remain a national leader in education,” DeSantis said.
