Florida sets shining example on school choice. Here's how

Florida Gov. DeSantis expected to sign school choice bill
Arizona Director of American Federation Steve Smith and Director of Leadership Institute Bridget Ziegler joined 'Fox & Friends Weekend' to discuss the importance of school choice.

Florida has long been a pioneer in ensuring that families can choose the learning environments that align with their values and work best for their children. Now its lawmakers have cemented the state’s status as a national leader in education freedom and choice.

Last week, the Florida Senate passed House Bill 1, which expands the state’s groundbreaking education savings account (ESA) policy to all K-12 students "regardless of race, income, background, or zip code," said House Speaker Paul Renner. Until now, only students with special needs were eligible.

With an ESA, families can customize their child’s education. They can use ESA funds to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, homeschool curriculum, online learning, special-needs therapy, and more. Florida was the second state, after Arizona, to enact an ESA policy.

Florida will now be the sixth state nationwide to make an ESA or ESA-style policy available to all K-12 students.

Due in no small part to its robust education choice policies, Florida ranked first in the nation in The Heritage Foundation’s inaugural Education Freedom Report Card last year. "Florida’s schoolchildren are thriving because we invest in our students, and we empower parents to decide what learning environment is best for their kids," explained Gov. Ron DeSantis at an event launching the report card.

However, as DeSantis conceded during his remarks, Florida did not take the top spot in every category. The Sunshine State ranked third for education choice behind Arizona and Indiana due to their more expansive education choice policies. "We’re going to be working hard to make sure we do even better going forward," DeSantis declared.

With the imminent signing of the universal education savings account program into law, DeSantis has done just that.

Governor Kim Reynolds on school choice bill: 'This gets us to universal school choice'Video
Florida faces some tough competition, though. In the last two years, Arizona and West Virginia have also made ESAs available to all students. This year, Iowa, Utah and Arkansas all enacted new ESA or ESA-style policies that are either open to all K-12 students or will phase-in to universal eligibility over the next three years. Several other state legislatures, most notably in Texas, are also considering bills to create robust education choice policies.

What explains the meteoric success of states in finally adopting universal education choice options? Two shifts: connecting choice to the issues about which families care most and making sure every family can benefit from the policy.

Parents care about academic outcomes. But more than that, they care about the values schools are inculcating in their children. When a survey asked Florida families using tax-credit scholarships to list the top three factors that influenced their choice of school, the only factors selected by a majority were "religious environment/instruction" (66%) and "morals/character/values instruction" (52%).

Parents want schools to teach their children to be good students, good citizens and good workers, but most of all they want their children to become good people.

This is apparent from the issues that have been driving parents to turn out in droves at school board meetings. They’re not there because of low test scores or a lack of rigorous instruction. Parents are raising concerns about classroom lessons that teach children to divide people along racial lines, pornographic books in public school libraries, and school policies that keep parents in the dark when their children are struggling with their "gender identity."

DeSantis and the Florida legislature have tackled these issues head on while recognizing that school choice policies are a vital part of the solution. School choice gives parents an immediate escape hatch if their child’s school is pushing an ideology that runs counter to their values. But equally importantly, school choice policies empower families who want to push back against radical policies in their schools.

This is one reason why education choice options should be open to all children. With school choice, families are no longer a captive audience of their assigned school. School officials and school boards are less likely to be dismissive of parents who are raising concerns when they know that unhappy parents can take their children elsewhere – and the money will follow them.

Making school choice policies universal is also more popular among voters. In a 2022 survey, barely half of the respondents favored making school choice available based on financial need, but 75% favored making it available to all families. State policymakers nationwide are achieving greater success advancing universal choice proposals than ones that are limited to particular populations.

For setting the standard for empowering all families to choose the right learning environments for their children, Florida lawmakers deserve an A+. Lawmakers in other states would do well to follow the Sunshine State’s shining example.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/florida-sets-shining-example-school-choice-heres-how

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Law school grad says he was suspended, forced to undergo psych eval for questioning school's COVID policies

A Georgetown University law school graduate claims he was forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for questioning the school’s COVID policies.

William Spruance, currently a practicing attorney, said he was suspended, forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and threatened by administrators in August 2021 for questioning the law school’s COVID and masking policy.

"So after I was encouraged to give a speech to a student council-type group at Georgetown, I received an email that I was indefinitely suspended from the school, that I'd have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and waive my right to medical confidentiality," he alleged Monday on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

"During the psychiatric evaluation – It would start with kind of innocuous questions like, ‘Do you ever get angry?’ Followed by ‘Do you get angry about masks? And then do masks make you want to hurt anybody?’ So it was an ongoing cycle of questions that were designed to make me seem unhinged for being willing to question their COVID policies."

Host Tucker Carlson expressed shock and questioned if any of the law school administrators were willing to have a "rational" conversation with him about the masking policy.

"I found that individual professors were willing to have the conversation with me behind closed doors, but they wished to remain anonymous. As for the administrators, there was no such luck," Spruance responded.

"While ostensibly this was about COVID, it was really part of a much larger cycle of events at Georgetown Law. We had people like Sandra Sellers and Ilya Shapiro, who were thrown out of the institution just for being willing to question campus orthodoxies. And it was part of an ongoing double standard where if you're progressive and you regurgitate the proper slogans, then there's an indemnity built into shouting down speakers," he explained.

"If you're willing to question the orthodoxy of campus, then they'll bring the whole horde of administrators against you and work to professionally and socially and reputationally destroy you."

Spruance added that the whole alleged ordeal has not left him optimistic about the future of the school.

"I think in the long run, it's hard to be optimistic about future judges and administrators and unimpressive bureaucrats because Georgetown Law is really just an incubator for an unimpressive ruling class of tomorrow," he said.

"These people won't stay on campus and just make the people there miserable. They'll be running institutions like Georgetown Law. They will be at various government agencies. They'll be judges. And that, to me, is the more alarming aspect."

"I made it out of this process relatively unharmed. I mean, it was about a week that was difficult in my life. But going forward, people have come out to me since my piece was released about similar stories, and they're going through far worse than me," he continued. "At the root of this is the administrators. And that's where these students and these professors and these administrators will go on to inflict more damage."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/law-school-grad-says-suspended-forced-undergo-psych-eval-questioning-schools-covid-policies

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Drag queen straddles girl at North Carolina public school

A new viral video shows a drag queen straddling a young girl during an LGBTQ pride event at a North Carolina school that enrolls students as young as 14.

A video obtained by Libs of TikTok showed multiple adults laughing and watching a drag performer appearing to give a lap dance to a student at Forsyth Technical Community College last Wednesday.

The public college has two on-campus high school programs that begin enrollment in ninth grade. Photos posted by the school’s official Instagram account showed drag queens posing with young girls.

The school told Libs of TikTok that the event was open to students of all ages.

"These students, like all college students, are open to attend any student event," the school said. "Forsyth Tech is committed to being a place of promise for our students. In order to fulfill that promise, we have clearly spelled out our mission, vision and equity statements."

Promotional materials for the 2023 Pride Festival, which was held at a restaurant on campus, advertised four drag queens, a "drag performance" and "free food, drinks, music & activities."

At least one Christian church, Parkway United Church of Christ, attended the event, according to photos posted by organizer Forsyth Tech PRIDE Club on Facebook.

A program of the Forsyth County Health Department, Prevent Ongoing Spread of STIs Everywhere (POSSE), set up a free HIV and STI testing station at the event and repeatedly promoted it on its Facebook page.

Forsyth Public Health Director Joshua Swift issued a statement to Fox News Digital Tuesday evening saying POSSE had spent $58 in taxpayer funds for supplies for the event, but he also disavowed "the actions that allegedly took place."

"P.O.S.S.E, which stands for Prevent Ongoing Spread of STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) Everywhere is an outreach section of Forsyth County's Department of Public Health," Swift said. "Our staff is committed to meeting the people we serve where they are. We believe we assign an appropriate amount of attention on the LGBTQIA community around education and prevention of sexually transmitted infections."

"Our staff was aware that there would be drag performances but was not involved with planning the event and had no information regarding the age of the attendees," he continued. "We spent $58 on supplies from the department's operational budget which is funded locally and in-part by the State of North Carolina. We do not condone the actions that allegedly took place during the event."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/drag-queen-straddles-girl-north-carolina-public-school-video-shows

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