Knives are out for school choice in Florida. College indoctrination. Chinese Ballon Popping – Top 3 Takeaways – February 6th, 2023
- Word association. I say teachers’ union, you think what? Here’s another question for you. Do you support parents and students having more control over education or the teachers’ union? It’s fascinating to me how the very people who are responsible for educating most of our children (teachers that are in a union) continue to misinform and outright lie with impunity. I say fascinating as opposed to shocking, because I’m well aware of how nefarious the agenda of the American Federation of Teachers (parent to all Florida teachers' unions) and the National Education Association are. We’ve often discussed these matters, so I’ll not take time revisiting what most in this audience already know. But what you may not know, and that I’ll address in today’s Q&A, is the extent to which the teachers’ unions, leftist politicos and their allies in news media are going to misinform and fear monger regarding the viability of Florida’s Universal School Choice proposal which was recently unveiled. After a first week of just simply opposing the plan but without a unified message, last week all of the related leftists coordinated their message. We can’t afford it. Per pupil student funding would have to be significantly cut. Well, that, or tax increases. Except that none of it is true. As I illustrate in today’s Q&A, how dishonest and disingenuous are the union-led detractors to Florida's Universal School Choice plan? Only 12.5% of the existing increase in revenue/reserve money in Florida is needed to do it. It’s hard to overstate the absurdity of the argument. Never mind the false premise that it’s based on. When in your life have you ever heard of teachers’ unions, democrat politicians and the media establishment saying we can’t afford more spending in K-12 education? But here we are. Yes, they’ve always wanted as much spending in education as possible, provided they’ve had control over it. Now, they’re opposed to spending more because it threatens their control in lieu of shifting it into the preferences of parents and students. And it’s worth considering. If these elements on the left are this dishonest publicly... What do you think is and has been happening in the classroom? There are no positive words to associate with those people. Instead, there’s a need to disassociate as much as possible with them. Hence Universal school choice. Similar but different...
- Secondary indoctrination. But wait there’s more. While Florida’s university system is now the top ranked in the country, it’s not without similar indoctrination efforts to colleges across the country. After the education establishment firmly opposed the state’s first college survey, which was aimed to attempt to gain a sense of the diversity of thought on college campuses, (in addition to whether students themselves felt like there was freedom of speech on campus without retribution), came last weeks’ announced preliminary findings. Among them... as Governor DeSantis said, it “revealed an extraordinary misuse of taxpayer dollars to promote a political agenda at the expense of academic focus”. Among the announced findings... UF hired a “Chief Diversity Officer” with staff at a cost of $750,000 to taxpayers annually, FAMU created a center for Environmental Equity and Justice at a cost of $1.8 million annually. The University of South Florida created a Diversity and Inclusion Office at a cost of $1.1 million annually and the University Central Florida added “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” officials at a taxpayer expense of $445,000 annually. But upon further review, there’s already much more to the story than was willfully reported by Florida’s colleges. The state, in investigating the disclosures by colleges to programs, has already begun to find others. One of the first to surface. The University of Florida has an official “Youth Gender” program. And what does the program purport to do on its own website: Our services are consistent with the World Professional Association For Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care and focus on the biological, psychological, as well as social (biopsychosocial) components of Trans health. Services provided include consultation, psychotherapy, and assessment of medical readiness for cross-sex hormone therapy. Boy, it makes you feel good as a taxpayer to be funding that doesn’t it? No real surprise why UF intentionally withheld that disclosure. So yes, A) The state of Florida should immediately defund that amoral abuse of public funds and B) It’s clear there’s much more to the secondary indoctrination effort than the colleges disclosed and that we likely know.
- Chinese balloon popping. Chinese balloon popping in the United States isn’t a new thing. Did you know that 80% of all balloons purchased in this country are made in China? But no, I’m not talking about birthday balloons here. I am talking about the Biden administration finally shooting down the Chinese Spy balloon which spent days over the United States doing whatever Chinese spy balloons do. And yes, the Chinese are now feigning outrage over this. But here’s the thing and it’s a highly important thing. The Chinese got everything they wanted. Everything. And President Biden gave it to them just as they wanted. This spy balloon, which the United States government had been tracking well before it ever reached US airspace, crossed into the country in an unpopulated region of Montana. It could have immediately been taken out without any risk of impact to people or property. Instead, he waited until the Chinese directed it straight across the country and existed South Carolina’s coastline. To the lightly informed, Biden can appear tough on the Chinese for having taken it out. To the knowledgeable, it’s clear what happened here. China got everything they wanted, whatever it was, before we popped their balloon.