Florida Commissioner Endorses Privatizing The Responsibility for Education

ByAccountabaloney November 24, 2024November 24, 2024

After denying any association with Project 2025 during the campaign, the Trump transition team now appears to be moving full steam ahead… A bill to dismantle to the U.S. Department of Education has been filed. President-elect Trump has named Russ Vought as Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director. Vought is the architect of Project 2025 and will require Senate confirmation. Linda McMahon, co-founder of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and board chair of the American First Policy Institute (AFPI), is President-elect Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education (she will also need Senate confirmation). The American First Policy institute has ties to ALEC (American Legislattive Exchange Council) and the Council for National Policy (CNP). All three organizations have ties to Project 2025. When McMahon chaired America First Works, in 2020, it donated nearly a million dollars to the Heritage Foundation which produced Project 2025.

Florida’s public schools already know the impact of many Project 2025/America First policies. We have watch ALEC and AFPI influenced policies enacted for the last two decades or so. It appears the Florida Model may be the model for the nation when it comes to the new Trump administration’s education goals. In fact, the authors of Project 2025 annually award Florida 1st place in their contest to see which state has implemented the most of their privatization proposals, “The Education Freedom Report Card, a feat our Commissioner of Education and State Board of Education constantly tout during board meeting and public addresses.

Last October, I participated on a panel discussing how Florida’s education policy has, over the last quarter century of tri-fecta Republican rule, persistently and relentlessly moved towards privatization, leaving us on the very brink of total destruction of our public schools. One of the primary ideas we wanted to express was that the goal of these efforts is not simply to privatize education (for profit, religion, to break the union, reduce taxes, etc.) but to actually privatize the responsibility for education so that the government will no longer be responsible for it at all. Privatizing the responsibility for education will be devasting to the future of public education. Once lawmakers can convince taxpayers that they are no longer responsible for ensuring the children in their community have access to high quality public schools in their neighborhoods – that those responsiblities belong solely to the child’s parents – taxpayers will question why they are paying taxes to support individual choices and responsibilities. (I already question why my taxdollars are being used to fund homeschooling and religious education.)

Last week, at the FLBOE’s November meeting, held in conjunction with Florida’s 2024 Charter School Conference and School Choice Summit, Commissioner Diaz was very clear:

“Charter Schools and private schools are flourishing in Florida, thanks to the leadership of Governor DeSantis and his commitment providing families with the best educational option for their child. Like I’ve said before, education is not about a collective, it’s about each individual student and making sure that we are meeting the needs of that individual student.”
Florida’s Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr. 11/20/24 State Board of Education Meeting, Orlando.

While “education” may not be about a collective, PUBLIC EDUCATION certainly is. Public schools can and do strive to meet the needs of each individual student and the funding of public schools is, by definition, a communal effort. Florida’s Constitution (Article IX) declares the education of children a fundamental value of the people of the State of Florida. Adequte funding “for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools” that allows all children access to a high quality education is “a paramount duty of the state.” The State board of education is charged with supervising that system of free public education and locally elected school boards are required to operate, control and supervise all free public schools” within their district.

Maintaining a high quality system of public schools does not infringe on a parent’s right to choose how their own child will be educated but it does require one available choice be free, high quality, safe and secure publicly-funded schools with taxpayer oversight by locally elected school boards. Education of children continues to be a fundamental value of Floridians and adequate provisions for free public schools in each community should be the paramount duty of the state. Indeed, most communities would point to their public school as one of their most valuable community assets. This was demonstrated on Election Day when voters in 21/22 Florida counties agreed to increase their own taxes in support of their public schools. Year after year, voters across Florida vote overwhelmingly in support of their local public schools and are willing to pay for them.

As Floridians, we must continue to support public schools as a fundamental value and as a community responsibility and we must insist that Tallahassee does too. Is it too late for Florida? I don’t know but it could be if Floridians don’t come together to counter the narrative coming out of Tallahassee.