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Parents and residents in Miami-Dade County, Florida want the district’s public schools to teach children English, math and science, not ‘left-wing’ socialist ideology, according to a series of reports. opinions expressed at a public meeting on Wednesday.
At the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Board meeting, parents and community members shared a range of views on Resolution Item H-11 (pdf), which sought to recognize October as LGBT history month.
After hours of energetic and at times disruptive comments from more than 100 residents and council members, council voted 8-1 against the resolution, to cheers from the public.
The majority of the school board felt the resolution, introduced by member Lucia Baez-Geller, conflicts with Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act. This bill, considered controversial by some, prohibits classroom teaching about sexual orientation from kindergarten through third grade, as well as teaching that is not age-appropriate.
Baez-Geller was the only Miami Dade School Board member to vote yes. The rest of the board, including its chairman and vice-chairman, Perla Tabares Hantman and Steve Gallon III, voted against H-11.
Hantman, who represents District 4 and who will retire from the board in November, noted that she was originally from Cuba and felt “blessed” to now live in a democracy and to see it in action during the Wednesday meeting.
“We respect everyone’s rights, but we have to be in compliance with the law,” she said, referring to the potential for H-11 to violate state law that gives parents a say. about what is being taught to their children.
“Your job is to educate, not indoctrinate”
Many parents and members of the public expressed their views on the proposal being leftist or socialist indoctrination.
“I don’t speak English well but I can’t keep quiet today,” said Fabio Hernandez, a father. “We are talking about indoctrination, not education. Our children need education. Your job is to educate, not indoctrinate.
Hernandez suggested that teachers who want to get involved in efforts to support LGBT students do so outside of county schools.
Speaking at the school board meeting, Miami-Dade resident Elizabeth Santander-Cordero urged protection of childhood innocence and argued that LGBT ideology causes identity crises overwhelming among young people.
“Let us parents be parents and educate our children according to our values, morals and religious beliefs. As a mother and grandmother, I fail to see how respectfully celebrating so-called LGBTQ will benefit our students,” she said.
“On the other hand, I see a generation submerged and drowned in identity confusion. We are losing the origins of organic human identity by imposing the LGBTQ agenda against the innocence of our children.
“Children belong to their parents, not to the school”
Bill Thompson, who said he has lived in the county for 30 years and raised five children with his wife, said schools should stick to teaching common core subjects and leave social, political and philosophy to parents.
“Parents across America, including here in Miami Dade County, have stood for the principles that their children belong to their parents, not to the schools,” he said.
“Miami Dade schools, like all schools across America, should teach academics math, science, history, and English, as well as morals and values, but not social, political beliefs and philosophical,” he added. “That should be left to the parents’ decision.”
The overwhelming majority of speakers at the Miami Dade County School Board meeting echoed similar sentiments against H-11.
Florida pushes back against ‘oppressive’ leftist ideologies
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has signed a number of measures to combat what he sees as wacky leftist and racist indoctrination in the state of Florida.
In March, he signed the Curriculum Transparency Bill (HB 1467) into law, which allows parents to see and challenge teachers’ teaching materials, required reading lists and books in school libraries. It also sets the term of office of school board members.
“We’re going to make sure the parents have a seat at the table,” DeSantis said at the time. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
“We believe that parents not only have a role, but [they also] have a fundamental role to play in the education of their children,” he added. “That’s how it’s going to be in the state of Florida.”
In April, DeSantis also signed the Stop Woke Act to restrict ideological indoctrination and training in schools and the workplace.
The bill was designed to prohibit Critical Race Theory (CRT) from being taught in schools or used in employee training sessions, according to the bill’s sponsor, Republican Senator Manny Diaz Jr.
The CRT is considered by conservatives and experts on the subject to be a racist theory because, among other things, in practice, it tells white students that they are the oppressors of blacks and other non-white races.
“Parents don’t want their children separated on the basis of race; I do not want my children to be told that they are forever condemned to feel guilt and shame because of the color of their skin or that they have no opportunity and no possibility of success in the States States,” said Christopher Rufo, Principal Investigator and Director. of the CRT initiative at the Manhattan Institute, which DeSantis attributes to the exposure of CRT in schools.
Another CRT expert, James Lindsay, who wrote the book “Race Marxism: The Truth About Critical Race Theory and Praxis”, said that the CRT “calls everything you want to control racist until you control it. “.
The NAACP defines the CRT as “an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society.”
When he signed the bill, DeSantis told a cheering crowd that not having “oppressive ideologies” imposed on you without consent is an important aspect of “freedom in the state of Florida.”
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Caden Pearson is an Australia-based journalist. Contact him on caden.pearson@epochtimes.com.au
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