Florida has been a bastion of conservative ideals ever since Gov. Ron DeSantis has been in office.
And after being re-elected in a landslide victory last year, DeSantis and his fellow Republicans haven’t wasted any time passing new laws designed to highlight personal freedoms and American values.
In fact, the state GOP just passed 2 more laws, both of which directly impact the education sector.
Republicans currently hold the supermajority in both the House and Senate in the Sunshine State, and DeSantis is quick to implement passed bills. He’s expected to sign these two relatively quickly.
The first emphasizes freedom of speech in schools (and not kowtowing to forced pronouns) and the second applies to so-called diversity classes in universities.
Both are key victories for right-wingers (from Fox News):
Republicans in the Florida Legislature handed Gov. Ron DeSantis a pair of wins Wednesday when they approved bills to prevent students and teachers from being required to use pronouns that don’t correspond to a person’s sex. A second bill banned diversity programs in colleges.
Other proposals in the state chambers have included hot-button topics like gender, race, and sexual orientation in the school system.
For the first bill that passed the Senate this week, it prevents school employees and students from being forced to use certain pronouns. This comes after some states have floated the idea of criminalizing “improper” pronoun usage.
On top of that, the law will stop schools from teaching “gender identity” and sexual orientation up to the 8th grade. Gov. DeSantis has already said he’d prefer it to be banned for all grades.
Parents will also be able to challenge schools that use books deemed inappropriate for children.
Another piece of legislation that went through the House bars colleges from utilizing state or federal funds to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.”
Republicans and other conservative leaders maintain that just about anything involving the DEI is racist, divisive, and even hateful at its core. They don’t believe it should have any place in education at all.
Lastly, the bill bans anyone from using public bathrooms that don’t correspond to their biological gender.
Unfortunately for the Democrat opposition, they can’t really stop any of these bills because Republicans hold easy sway in both chambers in Florida. And DeSantis is typically in full support.
These are the sorts of conservative ideals some voters hope DeSantis will bring to the election 2024 battle — the popular Governor is expected to confirm his candidacy very soon.
Key Takeaways:
- Florida passed several bills that highlight Republican ideals, and Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign them into law.
- The bills stop forced pronoun usage in schools, bars colleges from promoting DEI programs, and bans people from using a bathroom that doesn’t match their biological gender.
- Democrats can’t stop the bills because the GOP holds the supermajority in both state chambers.
Source: Fox News
