Scoop: Ron DeSantis's school board is secretly expanding "Don't Say Gay" to everyone

They just can't wait a few extra weeks

Welcome to a Monday edition of Progress Report.

As we outlined over the weekend, Floridians may have voted for Ron DeSantis in record numbers in November, but they really do not like the policies that the whiny white nationalist has pursued to boost his right-wing bonafides. The ongoing dismantling of Florida’s public education system has drawn bipartisan dismay, and as we reveal exclusively in tonight’s newsletter, DeSantis’s hand-picked state Board of Education plans to double down on the cruel strategy.

By the way, white nationalists on Sunday goose-stepped outside a shopping center in Winter Park, FL, and of course Ron gave no comment. He absolutely refuses to condemn Nazis, which only empowers them further (and is likely the point).

Note: An earlier version of this story ran in the SWORD newsletter, so make sure you sign up for our work there, too.

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by Jen Cousins and Jordan Zakarin

The Florida Board of Education is so eager to make life even worse for students, parents, and teachers, it’s planning to side-step the democratic process and do it by fiat.

On March 22nd, the BoE will meet to vote on amendments to the “Principles of Professional Conduct” that govern teacher conduct in the state. One of the proposed rules would essentially expand the state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law up through 12th grade. If approved, instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity would be banned unless it’s expressly required by the state or part of a pre-approved sex-ed course taught to students whose parents have approved their attendance.

The ideological makeup of the board all but guarantees that the rule will pass with little opposition. Comprised entirely of Ron DeSantis appointees, the Florida Board of Education is light on educational expertise but full of far-right venom and reactionary instincts.

The roster includes a mix of donors and allies pulled from various corners of DeSantis’s orbit. Esther Byrd, a QAnon devotee who works as a legal assistant for her ex-legislator husband’s second amendment law firm, plays a prominent role in the venomous Moms 4 Liberty movement.

Tom Grady, another member, represents the financial elites that DeSantis has cultivated since his time in Congress. Grady is a financial securities lawyer who served one term in the state House, during which he distinguished himself by billing taxpayers for private flights on planes owned by donors.

Ryan Petty, who lost his daughter in the Marjory Stoneman Douglass massacre, sadly channeled his pain into a right-wing rage and has become a vocal advocate for the open carry law that’s opposed by three-quarters of Floridians. Several weeks ago, Petty started a Twitter feud with a local high school student activist. It’s seriously tragic.

Last fall, the board used the Principles of Professional Conduct to add teeth to the “Don’t Say Gay” law; as of December, any educator that violates the purposely vague law is at risk of losing their all-important teaching license. The board had hoped to pass the new rule with little fanfare, a plan that was foiled by the Progress Report newsletter in early October.

Even after getting caught, DeSantis’s board retains a childlike excitement about torturing children. There is little actual need for the BoE to push forward so aggressively with the new rules, because Republicans in the legislature have already introduced three new bills that would cover very similar territory.

Each bill is more mean-spirited and restrictive than the next HB 1223 would ban classroom instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity” from pre-K up through eighth grade, while severely limiting what can be discussed in high school classrooms. SB 1320 would give the state Department of Education complete oversight over every high school’s sex-ed lessons.

Both bills would prevent teachers from using students’ preferred pronouns. HB 1674, introduced by Rep. Erin Grall, would make it a second-degree misdemeanor for a trans person to remain in their preferred public bathroom if they’re asked by a cis person to leave.

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