After more than 1,200 objections were filed to school-library books and other materials last school year, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill that will limit challenges by some people.
The wide-ranging bill (HB 1285) also includes making changes designed to ease the process of charter schools taking over operations at traditional public schools that lag in performance.
The part of the measure dealing with book challenges came after the Republican-controlled Legislature and DeSantis in the past two years approved measures that ramped up scrutiny of library books and classroom materials. It also came after highly publicized disputes about removing books.
More than half of the 1,218 book objections during the 2022-2023 school year occurred in two counties, Clay and Escambia, according to a Senate staff analysis. The objections resulted in the removal of 186 books in the two counties.
The bill will require that any “resident of the county who is not the parent or guardian of a student with access to school district materials may not object to more than one material per month.”
During a media event Monday, DeSantis said that some people who filed mass objections to books made a “mockery” of the process.
“The idea that someone can use the parents’ rights and the curriculum transparency to start objecting to every single book, to try to make a mockery of this, is wrong. And you had examples where books were put under review that are just normal books that have been in education for many many years,” DeSantis said.
Using the example of Escambia County, DeSantis said the county “had a lot of books that should not have been under review” and said instances of mass book objections came “from all ends of the political spectrum.”
“There’s some people that really think all these books that have been in school are inappropriate. There’s other people that know that they’re appropriate, but are trying to act like Florida does not want these books in,” DeSantis said.
Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said Monday that the new limit on book challenges will help school districts in reviewing objections.
“That will make the process easier for the district to get through, because you can actually review the book in a timely manner,” Diaz said.
Meanwhile, parts of the bill related to underperforming public schools would “add some oomph” to the state’s process of allowing charter schools to take over operations, DeSantis said.
Under state law, if a school receives consecutive D or F grades based on various performance criteria, the school is given two years to improve to a C grade under what’s known as a “turnaround plan.” If the school’s grade doesn’t make such an improvement, one option is for the school to close and reopen as a charter school.
The bill signed Tuesday will speed up the process of converting traditional public schools to charter schools under such circumstances, in part by giving districts a deadline to execute charter contracts. For schools reopening as charters, districts would have to execute contracts by Oct. 1 of the following school year, and charter organizations would assume “full operational control” by July.
Speaking Monday at a Pensacola school that was taken over by a charter operator after lagging in performance, DeSantis said the transition “took forever.”
“That’s not what we want to be happening, where this stuff takes forever and a day. I mean, if you have a school that is getting F grades, we need to remediate very quickly. If you drag your feet for three or four years, those are three or four years of students that are not getting the type of education that they should be getting,” DeSantis said at Warrington Preparatory Academy.
Changes in the bill also include requiring charter operators that take over traditional public schools to serve the same grade levels as the traditional schools did, “at its current enrollment or higher,” but also give charters the option to offer additional grade levels.
The law also will direct state education officials to create a “classical education teaching certificate.” The certificates would only be valid at classical schools, and to obtain them applicants would have to meet most — but not all — requirements that traditional public-school teachers would have to meet.
Applicants for classical education certificates would be exempt from meeting requirements that they “demonstrate mastery of general knowledge,” “demonstrate mastery of subject area knowledge,” or demonstrate “mastery of professional preparation” and education competence.
The state has 18 classical charter schools in nine districts, according to the bill analysis.
“We have such a growth in the classical space, and those classical teachers have to be different,” Diaz said. “And so, we want to be able to have certification for those teachers that are going into a classical model where the most important piece is, yes, they have a license, but what is the professional development attached to that?”
Speaking at a classical school in Jacksonville where DeSantis signed the bill Tuesday, Diaz added that education officials did not want classical certificates to carry the same requirements as school districts, “because classical schools do it very differently.”
–Ryan Dailey, News Service of Florida
Deborah Coffey says
DeSantis is doing as much damage to Florida as Trump is to America. It’s hard to wrap one’s mind around the millions of people that support terrible human beings like them. For me, it’s impossible to find any redeeming quality.
boo hoo says
ALL of these need to be banned…home schooling, private schools, parochial schools, and vouchers. America can’t afford another 1.7 million people that think it’s okay to vote for a Herschel Walker or a Lauren Boebert. We need knowledgeable, critical thinkers.
Joe D says
Yet ANOTHER nail in the coffin of Florida public school educational standards by Ronald DeSantis . “CLASSICAL” educational “certificates” are an INVENTED joke that our Governor subscribes to.
It has little to no data to support the concept the teaching ONLY math and Reading and religious based science curriculum and little to no INDEPENDENT THINKING courses to stimulate students to use critical skills to solve u expected problems…it is MOSTLY to train students to simply repeat facts back.
Good luck with our students improving their test scores based on that style of education. It will also limit our high school students’ abilities to function in the “out of Florida” college environment….AGAIN putting FLORIDA students at a GREAT disadvantage to qualify for jobs.
Governor Ron wants to LOWER the teacher classical “certificate ” requirements, so more (potentially unqualified “teachers”) will be able to teach this “Classical” curriculum!
Essentially this will accomplish what he has wanted all along…to disempower teachers (and teacher UNIONS specifically).
Okay …what does the new legislation say if the school performance at these new “classical” curriculum schools, doesn’t reach the improvement level required? What if their students do NOT improve in national standardized testing…say within 2 school years?
Bit by bit, our current legislation and their Chief incompetent leader, are destroying Floridians quality of life, under the guise of combating “Wokeness” (whatever that really is).
Unfortunately, by the time he is no longer leading the PACK…it will be too late for lots of Florida students to catch up.
Ed P says
Deborah,
Just spent an hour reading the very wide ranging Florida hb 1285 and while it is not perfect, it has many “moving” parts.
Wondering what parts of the bill prompted the comment?
It provides some great changes. There must be a portion of the bill that even a “hater” might approve. It does make it harder for people without children in public schools to request book banning, isn’t that ok in your opinion?
endangered species says
Have a full blown moron control what books people can read. lol Working hard to make Floduh last in a educmacation. Lets defund education and ban books what could go wrong haha.
Charles says
Well written Deborah and I totally agree with you. This is why baby Boomers are leaving the state all because of DeSantis.
This is a good example why he will never be in the Oval Office. He is disliked by many in Florida and around the other states as well.
Ed P says
Deborah and Charles, boo hoo,
Where was anything other than public schools mentioned in the bill?
Charter schools are Public schools of choice in Florida. They are funded on a per pupil basis and receive about 2/3 the per student funding of a traditional public school. Yes, it operates under a contract or charter with an authorizer, that frees them from some of the restrictions of a traditional public school, but they are part of the public school system.
Students in charter schools normally exceed their traditional public school counterparts in math, science, and reading.
So how is this a bad thing?
Ed P says
Sorry Joe d,
Charter school use a classical approach rooted in language with real content. Not image driven. Students read whole literary works in great depth. They still learn the r’s too.
Oxford university has the largest Classics Faculty in the world…served Adam Smith, Tony Blair, Indira Gandhi, Oscar Wilde, J.R.R.Tolkien, and many others very well. Wouldn’t you agree?
Mary Jane says
DeSantis is running teachers out of this State as well as citizens. He continues to make very poor decisions and the mess this state is in with high cost of homeowners insurance, why does he constantly have to put his two cents in the education system?
He sure has his priorities all wrong or are they his wife’s priorities? Bad decision and what is sad we have two more years of that clown.
Laurel says
boo hoo: I’m so with you! unfortunately, critical thinkers are much harder to control.
I’m watching this incredibly smart ex-CIA agent on YouTube, and wow! Is he interesting! The CIA teaches their agents how to assess people, and according to him, people are influenced by four categories called RICE:
R – reward
I – ideology
C – coercion
E – ego
The categories, strongest influence to weakest influence, must trust to least trust, is:
1.) ideology
2.) ego
3.) reward
4.) coercion
Right now, our country is divided by ideology. People will do crazy stuff by influence. What party is using ideology (storm the Capital)? Who has the most ego? What is the promise of reward? Who is using coercion (towards those who are not loyal)?
If you can control ideology in schools, you can control the masses. To not have balance is very dangerous.
Laurel says
“Free Florida.”
Pogo says
@As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=charter+school+failure
This disastrous situation was totally accomplished with the election of Jeb Bush. This is merely the final step: forgetting.
Nancy N. says
You need to update your outdated view of who homeschools. Today, homeschoolers come from all parts of the political and religious (and non-religious) spectrum. Families homeschool to be able to travel and expand their kids’ worldviews, to better accommodate children with disabilities and medical challenges, to escape the conservative-warped curriculum in red state classrooms, and to allow their child to pursue things like acting or athletics while still studying. Internet connectivity and a huge range of curriculum resources available mean that quality teaching is possible for homeschool families who want it. It’s true that not all families do it well or for the right reasons. But for our autistic daughter, it has meant her being exposed to subjects that she never would have been allowed to take in a public school, because we could tailor them to make them accessible to her. Learning is a joy for her without all of the sensory stress of the public school where she spent her elementary school years. We don’t regret our decision for a minute.
Laurel says
Nancy: I can’t argue with that. My concern is how is it determined who really needs home schooling, and how are they monitored? If my tax dollars goes to home schooling, quite frankly, religion is out. My tax dollars should be directed to public schools. I can, however, see how certain special needs could be given consideration. But, other than that, just anyone who wants to do it, in my opinion, has opted out.
Ban the GOP says
public dollars going to line the pockets of owners of for-profit schools where there are no standards. racism can be taught. public schools have been short handed for a long time this will only make it exponentially worse for many children that rely on the public schools to have a decent chance at life. as usual the gop cowards always pander to money and this is no different. Plus stupid people love the fascist gop; educated people do not. Hense the sabotage education or no one will vote for us. funny how so many proud americans support the domestic terror organization called the gop.
Ban the GOP says
Some charter schools may others do not. Again no standards. Others teach the nazis were great and fascism is the way to go, the earth is flat, climate change isn’t real, jesus will be back any day, blacks enjoyed slavery, mexicans took your job. In about 5 years when florida is right there with west virginia in education the gop will know why but the average person will probably just blame it on joe cause thats all they know. Maybe some things like education just shouldn’t be all about money.