School Guardian Act, Randy Weingarten & DeSantis’ Run – Top 3 Takeaways – April 27th, 2023
- Florida’s model works. Rick Scott is right, again. Florida’s junior Senator Rick Scott has proposed a federal school safety policy fashioned after what he signed into law as Governor of Florida. Dubbed the School Guardian Act, the proposed legislation would reallocate federal funds aimed at hiring tens of thousands of new IRS agents, to instead use the appropriation to hire armed security at all schools across the country. Fashioned after a key component of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act, Rick Scott is right that this policy should become federal law. It’s now been over five years in Florida since the policy became law here. Tragically and sadly, school shootings have only proliferated since the attack at Stoneman Douglas, but not in Florida. Since the attack at Stoneman Douglas and the passage of Florida’s first school safety law, placing a minimum of 1 armed resource officer at every K-12 school in the state of Florida, we’ve had a total of 87 shootings at K-12 schools...none of which have happened in Florida. When greater than seven dozen school shootings take place, and none happen in the third most populous state, there’s a reason. Quoting Scott: Following the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, five years ago, we worked hard to make significant changes and establish measures to increase law enforcement in schools. Thanks to this work, and the landmark legislation we passed, every public school in Florida has an armed police officer, sheriff’s deputy, or an individual who has completed the rigorous training to keep our students safe from harm. The recent shooting of innocent children and educators in Nashville showed us that we need to do better to keep our schools safe, and that starts by bringing effective ideas like our Guardian Program to every school across our nation. Instead of spending billions of dollars to expand the IRS to go after American taxpayers, Washington can send a powerful message to parents about our true priorities by dedicating these funds to the School Guardian Act to provide block grants to states so they can increase school security at every school and keep kids safe. I hope my colleagues agree and support its quick passage. Florida’s model may not be perfect, that’s why the original law has been built upon over the years further strengthening school security measures as vulnerabilities have been found. But what we’ve proven is that Florida’s model works, and it should become a federal standard. And if you ask parents what they’d rather have, more school security or more IRS agents – what's the answer going to be? There should be broad bipartisan support for the proposal. And speaking of Florida’s education model working...
- The antithesis testified to Congress yesterday. Randy Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of Teachers, which is the parent of every teacher’s union in the state of Florida, testified to an altered state of reality on Wednesday. Yes, the same woman who infamously once said: There’s no way that you’re going to have full-time schools for all the kids and all the teachers the way we used to have it. And spearheaded a series of lawsuits to attempt to prevent it in Florida, stating: The lawsuit intends to stop the reckless and unsafe reopening of public-school campuses. Went before Congress and had the audacity to state: We are asking you to help us help students recover from the effects of the pandemic—learning loss, trauma and sadness. Yes, the very loss, the very trauma, and the very sadness the AFT and its member teachers across the country fought for and even sued to ensure would happen. And then, even after failing to stop states like Florida from reopening schools, conspired to reverse CDC guidance removing mask mandates from children in schools. Randi testified that it was completely normal for the CDC to seek the guidance of teachers for the purpose of setting policy. Which if true, that the teacher’s union is consulted for scientific decision making, would be one more reason why the unelected body of scientific dictators in Atlanta should never have the authority to set policy for anyone other than themselves. But revisionist history and spewed absurdities were to be expected from Randi. It serves as a reminder though, that over 70% of Florida’s public-school teachers are a member of her union. If their leader is willing to lie, mislead and attempt to explain away the blatant harm caused by her actions and those of her members, before Congress...how can we trust what her union members are doing in the classroom? But speaking of the impact of the education losses. Recent analysis shows what the impact of the learning loss during the pandemic amounted to for the average student. $28 trillion in earnings, or $70,000 for every K-12 student subjected to extended remote and extended masked learning for the better part of two years. That’s the expected loss in future earnings as a result of lost education according to Stanford University’s chief economist. So not only did Florida’s model work, in which we saw fewer students contracting COVID who attended school, than those who were remote learning...our kids will be considerably better off financially in the long run due to Governor DeSantis’ leadership too. Speaking of which...
- DeSantis wants to raise money and test the waters, but what he really wants to do is run in 2028 after Trump wins or loses. That’s a quote from an alleged top source with knowledge of both Trump and DeSantis as reported by the New York Post yesterday. But there was more. According to the story and the source, Trump’s top advisors are attempting to convince the former president to cut a deal with DeSantis to make him his running mate and Trump’s listening. Is this true? Possibly. Is it likely? Maybe. But even if the source is right, DeSantis would still have to agree to the deal and that’s anything but a given. However interestingly enough – in the proposed amendment introduced Tuesday in the Florida legislature, which would enable Governor DeSantis to run for president without resigning from office, the language included if running for “President or Vice President of the United States”. So obviously someone’s thinking that way.