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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis celebrated his latest education bill alongside his political allies from the state’s Senate and House.
DeSantis invited lawmakers and parental rights activists on stage with him Friday as he spoke to a crowd of supporters about the new law, which is aimed at tightening parental power in education and increasing curriculum transparency.
“Parents want education for their kids. They’re not interested in indoctrination through the school system,” DeSantis said.
The Republican governor attributed the newfound parental advocacy for education reform that has swept nationwide to the pandemic, saying that online classes forced parents to become teachers and examine the courses their children were studying.
“Parents became exposed more to what was actually going on in some of the schools,” the governor said, later adding, “They’re going to school board meetings, they’re asking tough questions – advocating for their kids.”
DeSantis emphasized his belief that the majority of teachers in the state “want the parents involved” and “want to be focusing on education.”
“I don’t think most want to indoctrinate,” he added, instead blaming elected school board members.
In this photo from Feb. 24, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers remarks at the 2022 CPAC conference at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando.
(Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
DeSantis also mentioned the FBI and National School Board Association scandal “engineered by people in the Biden administration” earlier in the year.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona solicited the much-criticized letter from the National School Boards Association that compared protesting parents to domestic terrorists, according to an email exchange reviewed by Fox News Digital. The email exchange indicates Cardona was more involved with the letter’s creation than previously known.
President Biden’s Department of Justice relied on the NSBA letter, which suggested using the Patriot Act against parents, in creating its own memo directing the FBI to mobilize in support of local education officials.
Rebecca Sarwi, a parent in Volusia County, spoke about her own experience with inappropriate material in the Florida school library system.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks about the firefighting effort and available assistance for Bay County during a press conference in Panama City on March 6 , 2022.
(Michael Snyder-USA TODAY NETWORK)
Sarwi, who said a friend of her son found and showed off a “highly-sexualized” Japanese comic book from the school library, lamented the pushback from the school board on parental initiatives from curriculum reform to ending mask mandates.
“It’s been an eye-opening experience to the lengths they would assert their power,” she said of school officials.
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Other speakers at the event included Florida State Sen. Wilton Simpson, activist Alicia Farrant, Florida State Rep. Sam Garrison and Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran.
“It is appalling that the removal of pornographic and sexually explicit books has even been a cause of debate,” Farrant said.
The bill will also place hard term limits on Florida school board members.
“There’s no greater accountability than telling a politician, ‘Your career ends dead certain at this point in time,'” said Corcoran.
Fox News’s Peter Hasson contributed to this report.
