Billionaire and former candidate for President, Mike Bloomberg (D), has blasted Governor DeSantis (R-FL) and the Florida Legislature for recent passing of education reforms, claiming Florida, "seeks to limit open debate," in schools.
As of recently, DeSantis and Florida Republicans have taken major strides in combatting, "woke," ideology in public schools. With the Parental Rights in Education bill, this issue was brought to the forefront of Florida politics for several months as Democrats claimed the bill censored discourse on the LGBTQ community.
While Bloomberg does not seem to be critiquing this specific piece of legislation, there have been a recent wave of laws passed like the, "Stop Woke Act," have changed the landscape of education in the state of Florida.
"The free exchange of ideas in classrooms is critical to higher education and democratic society." Bloomberg added onto his Tweet, "A new law in Florida seeks to limit open debate - and the future of the country rests on the commitment of higher-education leaders to defend it."
The free exchange of ideas in classrooms is critical to higher education and democratic society.
A new law in Florida seeks to limit open debate - and the future of the country rests on the commitment of higher-education leaders to defend it. https://t.co/NjPKa6yj0M
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) August 15, 2022
DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin (R-FL), responded to Bloomberg's claims.
"Mr. Bloomberg, you abandoned the cause of free speech when you allied with the online censorship and disinformation bureau crowd. Freely exchanging ideas is critical to society, but Wokeism stifles speech by insisting particular viewpoints are adopted," stated Griffin
Florida Democrats have long used the same criticisms for pieces of legislation like the, "Parental Rights in Education," bill and rebranding it the, "Don't Say Gay," bill, although the bill does not use the term "gay" in the language of the legislation.
