Welcome to the nonprofits. It seems like every week we have a story about
Florida. Well this week is no exception. Sandy Plaza. What's happening in
the Sunshine State this week? Typical Florida guys story again. This story from
the Friendly Atheists and Man Meda written on May twenty twenty four. It talks
about a program in Florida installed by our friend Governed Descentis in twenty twenty two
that gives bunny to teachers if they follow a series of courses meant to basically
turn them into some sort of missionaries for their Christian nationalist agenda. This is
part of what he calls his Civic Literacy Excellence initiative, along with the defending
of public schools in favor of private and charter schools. So then this is
the second story this week so far that we've done that's about education. Do
you think that there is there something sinister going on as as part of a
larger plan or do you think maybe just a coincidence. Yeah, no,
it's definitely not a coincidence. It's a feature, not a bug. But
while the far right manufacturers and ideological war against the so called war agenda.
They are actually waging a real war on secularism in this country, trying to
turn it into some sort of theocracy in every way possible. I see those
as the last attempts from a small number of old white men to stay relevant
because they realize that region is going away from the population, and so they
try to keep it as it is as much as they can. But even
if it's a small number of people, they still can do a lot of
harm, and so we still need to fight back, hence our presence here.
So it seems like, I mean, it's like almost cartoonishly obvious propaganda
campaign, right, Kara, Do you think that these propaganda techniques are going
to be effective? You know, I'll say again, I'm going to take
a cautiously optimistic view on this. I think although this is a definite campaign
trying to get a lot of dangerous ideas and ideologies into schools that I am
concerned about. Having looked at some of the images in this article where it
shows you know, what was on the slides in this literacy excellence initiative,
I mean, it's almost comical. It reads some of these slides read like
some of the Christian homeschool workbooks that I did as a child that are you
know, unsourced or you know, the sources that are in them are things
like, you know, scripture versus or misleading references to what the founders collectively
may have thought or said. There's one slide stating the Christian principle of covenant
with God is reflected in Locke's social compact theory, which is a new one
on me. I am aware of a social contract theory by Lock, but
I don't know, maybe I missed that one. But I think that these
are not the kind of arguments that are going to be very convincing to teachers
who are educated and have a strong background in their field. And I understand
that not all teachers necessarily are able to teach classes that they have a lot
of degrees in or things like that, and so yes, there are going
to be teachers coming here who maybe aren't able to tell that these are not
factual statements and that these are not sound arguments. But I think for the
most part, I find it kind of funny that they're trying to educate educators
using very factually and accurate, wildly biased slides saying ridiculous things I mean,
if I was there as an educator, I would be first offended and then
amused by how silly this is. And I suspect there are people that are
going to be having that reaction. But at the same time, there may
also be teachers who believe in this ideology and want to be teaching it to
kids because they think it's the truth or the best thing for them. And
I think this is the kind of thing that would embolden people like that and
make them think not only that this is now allowed, but it's being encouraged
and it's something they should do. So for that reason, I think it
is very dangerous, but on its face it it's kind of absurd too.
So you said offended first and then may be amused, I would add maybe
terrified. As the stage three of the reaction to that, Jason, can
you flesh out some of the details of what DeSantis has going on down there?
I mean, I took some notes on this, so you know.
This started in kind of around twenty twenty two. Florida began adoctrinating public school
teachers with this Christian nationalism more or less to spread misinformation. DeSantis he had
a multimillion dollar what We just talked about the Civics Literary the Civics Literacy Excellence
Initiative. It's hard to say so twenty two. In twenty twenty two,
there were several voluntary three day training seminars. Here's the thing, it's always
money right in capitalism Sin He's talked about this before. Teachers who attended were
told that they would receive a seven hundred dollars stipend, which is a lot
more than teachers making multiple days worth of work, you know, for coming
to the thing, and they would be eligible for a three thousand dollars bonus
if they completed you know, additional tasks the seminars. Yeah, yeah,
the seminars developed. They were developed with the help of a Hillside College.
It's a conservative Christian school in Michigan. There was additional participation by the quote
Bill of Rights Institute, and it was founded by one of the right wing
Koch brothers, Koch just so in case nobody knew, look it up,
Koh, look them up. So it endorsed the Christian nationalist beliefs that conservative
Christianity is a bedrock of the country, that church state separation, as we
know it is actually a myth and that the Christian God gave us the rights
we have, and they just you know, and like Kara who was talking
about before, they just generally promoted misinformation at these seminars. And I really
feel like, I don't know if this is so much to like change people's
minds, like, oh, this makes sense, this is great. I
think what it is you're just knocking down more walls of that church state separation
thing, and you're telling the public kind of like what happened with other people
who have been in places of extreme power in our country. They say some
dumb shit, and then you know, the dude of works like, well,
this guy said some dumb shit, So that means I'm right about my
dumb shit, because I believe it is dumb shit, you know, So
I'm gonna say some dumb fucking shit. And yeah, yeah, that's fathering
some dumb shit. Oh you're just a fucking bitch for not you know,
being cool with my dumb shit that i've you know, ten years ago,
somebody would have fucking, you know, maybe thrown something at me at for
saying and you know, but now since this fucking guy who's in charge,
that's some dumb ship. That's what this is. This is this is a
this is more dumb shit campaign that that's that's all really is. I want
to touch on Jason. You mentioned the the money, right, So there's
a stipend and then additional stipends for for for deeper dive and and so it
seems that not only is are they trying to uh propagandize teachers in general,
but maybe even targeting the newer teachers. They're the ones who are going to
be at the bottom end of the pay scale. They're the ones who are
going to need those, you know, those extra opportunities to make a few
extra bucks. But they're also the ones who might be the least secure in
their uh, you know, in their subject area knowledge. So what exactly
are some of the can you give us some examples of some of the misinformation
that we're that's being spread around there? Well, so, I mean Jesus
Christ so much so they downplaced slavery. Uh, they embellished the impact of
the Judeo Christian leafs had on the nation's founding documents, you know, the
social compact or contact that they had, and they implied that the conservative judicial
philosophy that says quote the founder's desires, all that matter when deciding a case
was engineered into our legal system. They prioritize the views of religious thinkers over
the Enlightenment thinkers. When it comes to those who influenced the founders, the
founders, they cherry pick connections between the Bible and the federalist papers, i
e. Creation the Fall Ten Commandments, as if to say, those were
the basis for our founding document. And it's wild because the state awarded he
brought up money. The state awarded eleven thousand teachers more than thirty three million
dollars for completing those training sessions in twenty twenty three. DeSantis he is proposed
budget for twenty four through twenty five, which they had released in December,
included forty five million for the continuation of this Induction Nation program. This is
really similar to the Texas like you know, private school voucher of things that
we've talked about before. They're just they're incentivizing people to more or less buy
in, and of course people need money. Teachers aren't paid what they should
be fucking paid, so it's going to incentivize and then do you get the
social pressure thing where it's like, I don't need to rock the boat.
I wonder, I wonder if they're going to spin this as a way of
increasing teacher salaries. Well, they're going to use it as a way to
increase teacher salaries, and it's also going to ostracize teachers who don't you know,
it's just going to be just another tactic. One hundred percent. I
prophesy it. You heard it here first, folks, right here on the
non right here on the nonprofits. Uh, Cindy, I want to I
want to come back to you for a second here. We know that there's
various kinds of immunity that protect governments and government officials from things like civil lawsuits.
But if the policy decisions are demonstrably harmful, as it seems is the
case here, and possibly even a breach of a government official's oath, do
you think government officials like a governor, for example, should be vulnerable to
civil lawsuits based off of their policy decisions because currently now they enjoy a certain
amount of protection from that kind of thing. But do you think if we
started holding them a little bit more responsible in the civil arena, do you
think that would that would change the landscape here it's a very interesting question.
Before I answer it, I would like to just point out something because we
are talking about this very specific event, but we need to put it into
contexts with something we talked about like two weeks ago. It's about the trend
to accept more and more teasers without any degrees. So when you factor that
in too consideration with this specific event, then it makes even more sense to
target those teachers because since they are not qualified, there are less paid,
and so they will be more entitled to uh to try and go to those
seminars to to get some money. So, yeah, we need to put
the two side by side, because in my opinion, it's it's a concerted
effort to to to join the two. But to your question, I would
say, I'm I'm I'm going both ways there because I I think it's it's
dangerous to to start making politicians accountable for their decisions uh as uh while they're
in office. But on the other hand, we we need to have people
who decide more based on data, information and science rather than just political views
or indoctrination or yeah, yeah, and and so finding a way to to
apply that without I don't know, it's it's a it's a tough topic.
I'd have to think about it. Okay, I have one. I have
one other question here I want to ask. I'll give everybody on the panel
a chance to answer this one. So, the federal government gives states a
fairly wide berth when it comes to UH selecting their K twelve curriculum standards,
when they want to decide what the state wants to teach. We've seen the
federal government step in, you know, in certain circumstances where states were getting
a little too far afield. Slavery is a perfect example of that race.
Slavery was declared illegal at the national level in you know, as some states
were. We're protesting against that, so do UH. And so we'll start
with Cara here. Do you think that this is a situation is a good
argument for the federal government to step in and to have more hands on approach
with setting curriculum standards, or do you think this is just Florida's problem in
Florida is going to are going to fix it? Oh? Well, that
is a really complex question that I think people have been arguing over since the
beginning of the United States. So I don't know that I can give a
great resolution to that question you have. Yeah, I'm not going to be
able to do it, but I will say that, no, I don't
think this is just a problem for Floridians to fix. You know, as
we've discussed previously, this same kind of thing is going on in Texas,
it's going on in other states. It's affecting people all over the country in
different ways. And it is an instance where if you happen to live in
a state that has a governor in power who wants to basically force schools or
do everything that they can to encourage schools to teach kids garbage literally just factual
inaccuracies, that is an argument for some kind of regulation for that. Having
said that, I mean we could be having the same problem at the national
level too. There's no guarantee that the same kind of people with the same
kind of goals wouldn't just put themselves into positions of power and the federal government.
And now we're just doing it at that level too. So I think
the solution has to be something else besides that. But it is a concern,
and I guess my answer is I don't know how to fix this,
and that does keep me up at night. So you think maybe the federal
government stepping in would be a little maybe on the heavy handed side, or
or runs a risk of being misused, kind of like you know the atomic
bomb, right that was originally developed as a quote unquote deterrent, but it's
a horrible, horrible, wicked device in the wrong hands. Jason, what
do you think about that? Well, I think I think it's necessary that
the federal government starts paying attention to what's going on. If not, that's
at that point I have no faith that they will. I mean, with
the Roe v. Wade shit, that's you know, those people fu fucking
lost all. I mean, just lost me all hope is it's terrible,
And with what they're talking about with Oberfell and all this, I just just
so. But yeah, that's what the Fed's there for, because what's happening
here is a clear violation. They're they're incentivizing people to to merge church state.
They're they're literally what they're doing is on What they're doing is treasonous and
traitorous. That's what DeSantis is promoting, something that is treasonous and traitorous to
the American way of life and to the foundations of what of what we call
America. They're there. He's he's crossing into too many lanes and it's wrong.
He's one the wrong way in traffic. I don't know how the way
to put it, you know, So yes, I think the federal government
should step in. Uh. The reason they're not is because you know,
they fucking suck. So you know, it's this, This should have already
been happening. The fact that people like DeSantis, people who have a message
like DeSantis, How do I say this? The messages that DeSantis is promoting,
in my opinion, are anti American, and the decisions he's been making,
especially with things like this and actually funneling money into it and promoting it
and having it be a state thing, is in my opinion illegal and should
be should be. I just I don't know, I don't I don't know
how to say it without you know, going forward against candidate. I'm just
really not good with what's going on, and I think it needs to have
already been stopped and dealt with. In the fact that he already has a
fund, it's disgusting to me. So so, Cindy, do you agree
with Cara that weis that you know, we think something should be done,
but we're not really sure. Or do you think are do you ascribed by
the you know, burn it all down approach of Jason or what do you
think on that? Sandy? Do you think the federal government should step in
and say Florida slap him on the risk. No, that's not okay.
I think that all local school boards should be uh terminated and everything about education
should be decided at the federal level. I think the because the possibility to
infiltrate local school boards is extremely easy. We've seen it in in the last
years. It's been infiltrated by crazy people with crazy ideas, and and they
get and they get elected, and it needs to be decided not by parents
but by scientists and and people who are knowledgeable in the subject areas. Is
that what you're saying that that seems that makes a lot too much sense to
me. But yeah, since I'm not in from the US, so I
don't have this this few of state rights and UH and are founding fathers,
which again I think it's it's another huge problem when friends had I think it's
fourteen different constitutions since the Revolution, and I don't understand how the entire United
States keep talking about how we should or should not follow the words of people
who are that have been there for two hundred year is I don't understand that
that that framing, I don't understand that mentality. I don't get it.
I think I think that's a that's a that's a good point to to to
wrap up here. We have some great opinions. I think we had some
great discussions. We could have kept talking for hours and hours, I think,
but we're out of time for tonight.