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Florida: After DeSantis Takeover, Disastrous Mismanagement of Disney District

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2023 //
9

When Governor Ron DeSantis declared war on “woke,” the Disney Corporation spoke out, objecting to DeSantis’ hostility towards gays. DeSantis lashed out at Disney, dissolved its self-governing district, and placed the district under the control of a new board, whose members were selected by DeSantis.

Scott Maxwell, a regular opinion writer for the Orlando Sentinel, reports that the DeSantis board has serious issues caused by its incompetence and cronyism.

He writes:

If you look at the headlines coming out of Ron DeSantis’ new governor-controlled Disney district, you might think that Central Florida’s newest attraction is Mickey’s Wide World of Governmental Dumpster Fires.

New reports show veteran employees and managers are fleeing, saying incompetent management is in charge.

Spending on road maintenance is down while $795-an-hour checks to politically connected lawyers are increasing.

And now we’ve learned that the district awarded a $240,000 no-bid contract to yet another political insider — a member of the state’s now-infamous ethics commission who used to serve alongside the district’s ethically embattled new director, Glen Gilzean. That contract was canceled Monday after media raised questions.

Gee, who could’ve ever imagined that asking political cronies to mount a politically motivated takeover of a private business would lead to trouble?

Let’s start with the staff exodus. The Florida watchdog website, Seeking Rents, reported over the weekend that more than 30 district employees — including nearly half the senior leadership team — have resigned amid claims of mismanagement.

The numbers were significant, representing more than 350 years of combined experience and about a tenth of the district’s workforce resigning over the course of nine months. But just as significant were the reasonsthey gave for leaving.

One departing department director called the new leadership “unqualified and incompetent,” saying in an exit survey obtained via public-records requests that: “With the departure of more than 3 dozen employees, the district is no longer functional.”

A departing accountant described “a toxic workplace right now.” A former manager with more than 30 years of experience said the new political appointees “show a severe lack of trust for employees.”

And a departing executive assistant said the new leaders “could care less about the work that needs to be done for the taxpayers.”

Then there’s the no-bid contract that the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District recently awarded to another political crony — DeSantis ally Freddie Figgers (whose name actually sounds like a Disney character).

As WFTV reported last week, the district awarded Figgers a contract to help provide 911 services without giving other Florida companies the chance to bid on the gig.

Now, the district’s procurement policy states that contracts worth more than $100,000 should be competitively bid. And this contract was worth $242,500. Even Tweedledum knows that second number is bigger than the first.

But the district said that — gosh, darn it — it just didn’t have time to competitively bid this job out and that their policies allow “emergency” contracts to be issued without bids.

That sounds like a lot of Bibbidi Bobbidi bunk — especially since the contract ended up going to another DeSantis appointee.

Yes, these guys want you to believe that in a state of 22 million people, the only company capable of doing this emergency-communications work happens to be run by another gubernatorial appointee who serves on this state’s joke of an ethics commission.

It’s truly a small world, after all.

After local media asked questions, Figgers sent a letter to the district Monday agreeing to cancel his no-bid contract to “err on the side of caution,” saying: “We welcome the opportunity for an open bidding process …” Good for him. That’s how it should’ve been all along.

Speaking of the ethics commission, I still don’t understand how anyone thinks it’s proper for Gilzean to be pulling down this $400,000-a-year paycheck after the ethics commission’s own attorney said he was violating state statutes earlier this year by trying to serve as both an ethics commissioner and a paid public employee. Gilzean was forced to give up his ethics post, but this governor has yanked duly elected public officials out of office who have broken no rules while he leaves this statute-violating guy in a cushy job.

Meanwhile, the district is racking up legal bills. The district’s budget shows spending on “professional services … due to legal fees” has skyrocketed from $4.2 million to $11.1 million with some of that money going to $795-an-hour law firms, including one whose partners include DeSantis’ former roommate and campaign supporter.

At the same time, the amount budgeted for road repairs and maintenance — you know, the kind of work the district is actually supposed to be doing — has been cut by several million dollars, even though the park is growing and costs are rising.

So, cronies are cashing in while services suffer under this gubernatorial board whose members include a Moms for Liberty member and a pastor who made headlines for suggesting that contaminated tap water was turning people gay. The Mad Hatter would be proud…

Categories Accountability, DeSantis, Failure, Florida

DeSantis Takes Fight Against Drag Queens to the Supreme Court

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2023 //
13

Governor DeSantis is not faring well in the Republican race for the presidential nomination. The state faces soaring insurance rates and major climate issues. But the Governor is determined to drive drag shows out of Florida. His administration intends to bring his case against drag shows to the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping to override lower courts that decided that drag performances are a form of expression protected by the First Amendment. This is a “threat” that DeSantis cannot ignore.

The Miami Herald reported:

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court in a fight about a ruling that blocked statewide a new law aimed at preventing children from attending drag shows.

The state’s attorneys want the Supreme Court to approve a partial stay of a preliminary injunction that U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell issued to block the law.

Presnell issued the injunction in a lawsuit filed by the Orlando restaurant Hamburger Mary’s — but also applied the injunction to venues statewide. The partial stay, if granted, would allow the law to be enforced against all venues except Hamburger Mary’s while an underlying appeal of Presnell’s ruling plays out.

A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, rejected such a partial stay on Oct. 11. Attorneys representing Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Melanie Griffin, the named defendant in the case, took the issue to the Supreme Court last week.

“This is not a class action, and there is but one plaintiff: a restaurant in Orlando, Florida, known as Hamburger Mary’s, which claims that the statute unconstitutionally deters it from presenting to children live drag shows that are not sexually explicit,” the state’s attorneys wrote in the Supreme Court filing. “Even if such performances violated the statute, all Hamburger Mary’s needs to remedy its alleged injury is an injunction precluding the state from enforcing the statute against Hamburger Mary’s. Extending that relief to others not before the court did nothing to alleviate Hamburger Mary’s asserted injury and exceeded the district court’s remedial authority.”

But in a July decision rejecting a request for a partial stay, Presnell wrote that the state was trying to “neuter the court’s injunction” by having it apply only to Hamburger Mary’s. “Protecting the right to freedom of speech is the epitome of acting in the public interest,” Presnell wrote. “It is no accident that this freedom is enshrined in the First Amendment. This injunction protects plaintiff’s [Hamburger Mary’s] interests, but because the statute is facially unconstitutional, the injunction necessarily must extend to protect all Floridians…”

Hamburger Mary’s, which said it had run “family friendly” drag shows for 15 years, filed the lawsuit in May, and Presnell ruled June 23 that the law is not “sufficiently narrowly tailored” to meet First Amendment standards.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article280980003.html#storylink=cpy

Open the link to read more.

Categories DeSantis, Florida, Gender

Florida: DeSantis’ Ally Gets $1.3 Million to Lead State’s Smallest College

By dianeravitch
October 24, 2023 //
16

New College is the honors college of the state university system. It cared too much about race and gender, so Governor Ron DeSantis grabbed control by appointing hard-right conservatives to the New College board of trustees. The new board fired the President, a respected scholar who earned $350,000 a year and replaced her with politician Richard Corcoran, who served as Speaker of the House and State Commissioner of Education. He has no experience in higher education, but is an enthusiastic proponent of charters and vouchers, as well as DeSantis’ ally in fighting “woke,” liberalism and progressivism.

His charge is to turn this small bastion of progressivism into a small bastion of conservatism.

The New College Board voted to give him a five-year compensation package of salary and bonuses that may total $1.3 million, equal to that of the president of the University of Florida, which enrolls 61,000 students. New College has about 800.

So far, Corcoran has succeeded in driving out one-third of the faculty and has abolished diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, as well as gender studies. He has established athletic teams and is recruiting athletes.

Mel Brooks said in his film “A History of the World, Part 1,” that “It’s good to be the king.” In Florida today, it’s good to be a crony of DeSantis.

Categories Academic Freedom, Curriculum, DeSantis, Florida, Higher Education

Florida: Health Screenings Decline Sharply Due to Parental Rights Law

By dianeravitch
October 20, 2023 //
8

Florida is not a healthy place for children, thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis. In his zeal to show that he favors parents’ rights more than anyone else. Children in Florida used to be checked for vision, hearing, and other health issues as a matter of course, but no longer. Before they may be screened, a parent must provide written authorization.

Leslie Postal and Caroline Catherman write in The Orlando Sentinel:

Florida’s public schools historically have checked thousands of students a year for vision, hearing and growth problems, hoping to catch early health issues that can impede academic achievement.

But the number of students in Orange and Seminole public schools screened last year plummeted after Florida passed a new law that requires parents to give written permission for their children to take part in school-based health screenings, data from the state and the school districts show.

Orange County Public Schools, for example, screened nearly 55,000 students for vision problems during the 2021-22 school year but fewer than 14,000 students during the 2022-23 school year, a drop of nearly 75%.

Seminole County Public Schools screened about 7,100 students for vision problems last school year down from nearly 18,000 the prior year…

Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law — dubbed “don’t say gay” by critics because it limits instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity — was first adopted in 2021 and then expanded in 2022 and 2023.

It requires parents to provide written consent for medical procedures, including school health screenings and clinic treatments such as ice packs and bandages. It also means schools must request written parent permission for students to be called nicknames, attend school pep rallies or join after-school clubs.

DeSantis is a danger to public health.

Categories Accountability, DeSantis, Extremism, Florida, Health, Parents

Florida: Miami-Dade Schools May Launch a “Classical School,” Hillsdale Style

By dianeravitch
October 10, 2023 //
17

Governor Ron DeSantis is a big supporter of the Hillsdale College model for K-12 education, which Hillsdale calls a “classical education.” The model focuses on white, European history and literature and minimizes issues of race, gender, and diversity.

The Miami-Dade School District is beginning the process of opening a Hillsdale-style classical school.

The Miami Herald reported:

Miami-Dade Schools is considering implementing a classical education curriculum in at least one elementary school for the upcoming school year — introducing a politically debated education model and potentially displacing students and teachers if they do not wish to participate.

The tentative plan, provided to the board ahead of its Wednesday committee meeting, calls for picking a school, recruiting students, selecting a curriculum and training staff and faculty during the current school year and rolling out the curriculum over the next three years.

The district could also collaborate with the University of Florida’s Hamilton Classical and Civic Education Center — an academic center that was proposed during the 2022 Legislative Session by a group whose representative had a long history of working with conservative groups and advancing the mission of religious organizations. (The University of Florida received $3 million when Gov. Ron DeSantis approved the state budget.)

The model has been championed by conservatives, including DeSantis. Supporters of the model say it offers an alternative education to the traditional public school, which in recent years has been accused of focusing too heavily on discussions of race, gender identity and other social issues.

Critics say the model’s spotlight on Western civilization teaches a whiter, glossier version of American history and leaves out more contemporary subjects, such as global warming.

District staffers maintain they’re exploring it to see if the curriculum model would be feasible. Chief Academic Officer Lourdes Diaz told board members Wednesday it’s just the “first layer to see what is potentially possible.”

The plan does include a three-year implementation schedule to begin next school year, but that timeline could change. Grade configurations, geographical locations and partners, if any, would be considered when determining the program’s feasibility, the district said.

The education model, which DeSantis and other conservatives have championed, was first brought before the board in June by board member Monica Colucci, whom DeSantis endorsed in last year’s election.

The curriculum, which emphasizes a return to core virtues and subjects like math, science, civics and classical texts, puts a strong emphasis on Western tradition — or a historical focus on white, Western European and Judeo-Christian foundations — and demands a school culture of “moral virtue, decorum, respect, discipline, and studiousness among both students and faculty,” according to Hillsdale College’s Barney Charter School Initiative. Hillsdale College, a private college in Michigan with ties to DeSantis, is one of the most prominent proponents of the model.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article280124494.html#storylink=cpy

Categories Curriculum, DeSantis, Education Reform, Extremism, Florida, Gender, Race, Religion

Florida: GOP Legislator Seeks to Weaken Child Labor Laws

By dianeravitch
October 9, 2023 //
7

Child labor laws have been in place for more than a century. Republican-controlled states are weakening so that children are “free” to earn some money. Florida is the latest state to entertain the idea that children need “freedom” to work, not protection from dangerous working conditions. This is not progress. This is turning back the clock.

The Orlando Sentinel reported:

A proposed Republican bill to loosen child labor laws in Florida is part of a national trend aimed at repealing or weakening workplace protections for young people that have been in place for more than 100 years.

The bill could worsen graduation rates and hurt lower-income families, experts said, and could also be a way to replace some immigrant labor as Florida and other GOP-led states continue to crack down on undocumented workers.

“Are we willing to return to a world where we accept that children of the poorest families are working more than full-time jobs under hazardous conditions?” said Jennifer Sherer, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.

State Rep. Linda Chaney, though, said in a statement that her bill “intends to provide teenagers with the flexibility to work whatever hours they deem fits best with their schedule and financial goals.”

“Families are struggling in the worst economy in decades and I want to do what I can to help by providing opportunity,” said Chaney, R-St. Petersburg. “Government should not be in the way of people wanting to learn skills and make a living.”

The bill (HB 49) would remove all work guidelines for 16- and 17-year-olds, including the current requirements that they can’t work more than eight hours on school nights and more than 30 hours a week during the school year.

It also prevents local governments from passing ordinances stricter than state law.

In addition, the measure includes what Sherer called a “confusing” change to the language about 14- and 15-year-olds.

Where the current law states 14- and 15-year-olds “shall not” work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. for more than 15 hours a week during the school year, or more than three hours per day on school days, the bill would replace “shall not” with “may not.”

Sherer said it was unclear whether the proposed language revision was meant to make work standards for younger teens “optional” rather than mandated.

Terri Gerstein, a fellow at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School who testified before Congress earlier this year about child labor, said she couldn’t see any other reason to change it.

“To me, as a normal human being, ‘shall not’ and ‘may not’ sound like the same thing, right?” Gerstein said. But, she added, “‘shall’ is obligatory and ‘may’ is optional. … I can only infer that there’s something nefarious [going on], because otherwise, why would you change the language? It makes no sense…”

Child labor laws were one of the premier achievements of the Progressive Era of the early 1900s, when presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson helped usher in major changes to social and public policy at the state and national levels.

Florida passed laws at the time to protect children working in cigar factories and in agriculture. But now, it’s the 16th state in the past few years to have legislation filed to roll back those protections, Sherer said.

“Those are state laws that have often been in place for over a century,” Sherer said. “States began regulating child labor before the federal government did. And they play a really important role in regulating certain aspects of child labor protections that the federal government doesn’t cover.”

The most notable rollback was in Arkansas, where Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee signed the Youth Hiring Act that repealed a Progressive Era law requiring employers to verify a child’s age, acquire a permit and get parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to work.

“The Governor believes protecting kids is most important, but this permit was an arbitrary burden on parents to get permission from the government for their child to get a job,” Sanders’ communications director Alexa Henning told NPR.

Iowa also passed “what is probably the most extreme bill on child labor,” Sherer said, weakening guidelines on which work is considered too dangerous for minors.

“We know that certain jobs have proven dangerous and even fatal more often for youth and teens,” Sherer said. “That’s why those restrictions were put in place decades ago. So it’s a real slippery slope.”

The changes came as the Federal Labor Department has reported a significant increase in child labor violations over the past five years, Gerstein said, including minors working the night shift or being employed at places such as poultry processing plants and construction sites.

A meat-processing plant in Minnesota paid $300,000 in penalties after an investigation showed it employed children as young as 13, while a Michigan meat plant owner pleaded guilty to employing a 17-year-old in a dangerous job. The boy’s hand was severed by a meat grinder.

Categories Childhood, Cruelty, Deregulation, Economy, Evil, Extremism, Florida

Florida: New College Board Chooses DeSantis Crony as President

By dianeravitch
October 4, 2023 //
2

Since Governor Ron DeSantis engineered the hostile takeover of Florida’s progressive New College, the interim president was Richard Corcoran. Corcoran was a hard-right Speaker of the House of Representatives and Dtate Commissiober of Education, in which role he led the state’s attacks on public schools and the expansion of charter schools and vouchers. His wife founded a charter school and is now associated with the Hillsdale College Barney charter schools.

After a few months of deliberation, the hand-picked, stacked board decided to hire Corcoran as the permanent president of New College.

To be clear, he has no academic or scholarly credentials to be a college president.

He dropped out of the University of Florida and enrolled in St. Leo University, a Catholic college. After graduating, he received his law degree from Regent University, a private Christian university.

He has no previous experience as a professor, a college administrator, or a scholar. He is uniquely unqualified for a college presidency. Since he took charge of New College, one-third of the faculty has resigned, faculty have been denied tenure without reason, and students have protested the decisions of the board.

He has been successful in rightwing politics.

The original New College was founded as a school for creative, free thinkers, educated by faculty who were highly credentialed. The new DeSantis board intends to turn New College into the Hilllsdale of the South.

Corcoran claims to have boosted enrollment, which he did by recruiting athletes, not aesthetes or free thinkers.

Categories Academic Freedom, Accountability, Charter Schools, Corruption, DeSantis, Education Industry, Elections, Florida, Higher Education, Vouchers

Florida: School District Removes Books with Gay Characters, No Sexual Content

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2023 //
23

Charlotte County in Florida is following Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” law with zeal. School officials instructed school librarians to remove all books that have gay characters, even if the books have no sexual content. This is a deliberate effort to make gay people invisible, to erase them. Students may see gay characters in movies or television, but not in school.

Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries.

Judd Legum at Popular Information reported:

Charlotte County school librarians sought guidance from the school district about how to apply an expansion of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, to all grades. “Are we removing books from any school or media center, Prek-12 if a character has, for example, two mothers or because there is a gay best friend or a main character is gay?” the librarians asked. Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello answered, “Yes.”

The guidance by Vianello and the school board’s attorney, Michael McKinley, was obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP) through a public records request and shared with Popular Information. FFTRP requested “electronic records of district and school decisions regarding classroom and library materials.” In response, FFTRP received a document memorializing a July 24 conversation between Vianello and district librarians, known in Florida as media specialists.

The guidance made clear that all books with LGBTQ characters are to be removed even if the book contained no sexually explicit content. The librarians asked if they could retain books in school and classroom libraries with LGBTQ characters “as long as they do not have explicit sex scenes or sexual descriptions and are not approaching ‘how to’ manuals for how to be an LGBTQ+ person.” Vianello responded, “No. Books with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or school library media centers.”

Categories Censorship, DeSantis, Extremism, Florida, Freedom to Read, Gender, Librarians, Libraries

Miami Herald: We Are #1 in Drug Quackery and Book Bans!

By dianeravitch
September 30, 2023 //
13

Readers of this blog are well aware that Florida Governor DeSantis is running for the Republican nomination as an extremist on key issues like his opposition to abortion, to COVID vaccines, and to gays.

His views don’t seem to be helping his campaign. He keeps falling further behind Trump. It just goes to show that no one can run to Trump’s right.

The Miami Herald editorial board has had enough. They published a scathing editorial lambasting DeSantis for his appeals to ignorance and bigotry. In Florida, people are free to ignore science and “free” to get sick. Free to be ignorant and free to be a bigot.

Florida’s extremism has come home to roost. The Sunshine State has the distinction of championing misinformation on COVID-19 vaccines and intolerance on book bans.

Just as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration recommended people under age 65 do not get the new COVID-19 vaccine boosters, the state led the country in coronavirus hospitalizations.

During the week ending Sept. 9, Florida’s hospitalization rate reached 10.65 per 100,000 residents, Politico reported. That’s a small number compared to the peak of the pandemic, but emblematic of how Floridians have paid the price for the ignorance DeSantis has labeled “freedom.”

While his hand-picked surgeon general didn’t rule out vaccinations for those most vulnerable to the virus, people ages 65 and up, he left enough room for anti-vax fears to set in. He recommended they consult with their healthcare providers, including about“potential concerns” he’s raised about the shots that have saved nearly 20 million lives worldwide, according to a study published last year.

DeSantis’ hope is that his approach to the pandemic — ignoring and ridiculing mainstream public health recommendations — will help his presidential campaign resurface in the polls. But, as Politico reported last week, the pandemic, once a driving issue among Republicans, doesn’t appear to be top of mind for voters anymore.

When blue states were shutting down businesses, mandating masks and closing schools, DeSantis could draw a clear contrasting line. But now that most of the country has moved on from strict restrictions, all DeSantis has left is his dangerous rhetoric against vaccines. If elected president, he told ABC News he wouldn’t support further federal funding for immunizations.

Florida is no beacon of freedom as the governor is selling it to the rest of the nation. We have become the poster child for what happens when ideas leave the fringes of political discourse and are instituted as public policy.

Florida also is No. 1 — and by far — in taking books off school shelves.

Of 3,362 instances of book bans in public schools in the United States, 40% took place in the Sunshine State, according to a tally by PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of expression. Most book removals in the country were classified as “banned pending investigation,” meaning a book has been removed during review, the Herald reported.

Thanks to Florida’s expanded law known as “Don’t say gay,” any resident can object to instructional or library materials and get them removed until a school district conducts an investigation. The law also prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity and has driven groups to request banning books dealing with LGBTQ issues.

DeSantis has also signed laws to restrict how teachers speak about race and racism. His appointees, in their takeover of New College of Florida in Sarasota, voted to eliminated a major deemed too “woke,” gender studies.

This is Florida, where knowledge is restricted and free thinking is admonished. But you’re free to spew as much dangerous information to the public — the crazier and more conspiratorial, the better.

This time, it doesn’t feel good to be No. 1.

Please don’t make America like Florida!

Categories Accountability, Bigotry, DeSantis, Elections, Extremism, Florida, Freedom to Read, Health

PEN: Book Bans Rise Sharply, with Florida Banning the Most Books

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2023 //
12

PEN America released a report documenting that book bans had increased sharply over the past year, with the largest number of books banned reported in Florida, followed by Texas.

The freedom to read is under assault in the United States—particularly in public schools—curtailing students’ freedom to explore words, ideas, and books. In the 2022–23 school year, from July 1, 2022, to June 31, 2023, PEN America recorded 3,362 instances of book bans in US public school classrooms and libraries. These bans removed student access to 1,557 unique book titles, the works of over 1,480 authors, illustrators, and translators. Authors whose books are targeted are most frequently female, people of color, and/or LGBTQ+ individuals. Amid a growing climate of censorship, school book bans continue to spread through coordinated campaigns by a vocal minority of groups and individual actors and, increasingly, as a result of pressure from state legislation.

The Miami Herald reviewed what had happened in Florida.

One example in Florida is the expanded “Parental Rights in Education” law, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year and dubbed by critics the “Don’t Say Gay” bill as it prohibits discussions of sexuality and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.

In this year’s session, state lawmakers expanded the restrictions through the eighth grade. The expanded law, which DeSantis signed, also allows a parent or community member to object to instructional material or library books, and requires a school to remove the book or books within five days of a challenge and remain off library shelves until the review is completed.

The process is a “guilty until proven innocent policy” that leads to the removal of more books for more time, said Raegan Miller, director of development at the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a nonprofit that advocates for school libraries being accessible to all students.

Moreover, she said, books are expensive to purchase and public libraries are not accessible to all students — especially young students whose parents are unable to accompany them.

Governor DeSantis insists that there is no book banning:

Desantis, who has championed the bills, has called the “whole book ban thing” a “hoax.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called book banning in Florida a ‘hoax.’

During his May 24 presidential campaign launch on Twitter Spaces, he said, “there’s not been a single book banned in the state of Florida. You can go buy or use whatever book you want.”

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article279568719.html#storylink=cpy

Categories Censorship, Democracy, DeSantis, Evil, Extremism, Fascism, Florida, Freedom to Read, Libraries, Texas
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