DeSantis Talks Parents in Education Following State of the State Address

TALLAHASSEE – Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) gave his State of the State address today in front of the state legislature. He answered questions from the media following the speech and spoke on gender ideology in schools which perhaps, since the waning of COVID, has been his marquee issue.

Gov. DeSantis brought up how parents around the state are not in favor of teachers encouraging or motivating students as young as 10 – or even younger in some circumstances – to engage in topics such as their sexual orientation or their pronouns, especially without parental consent.

“The topic of things like gender ideology: I think it’s inappropriate. You’re having these kids and they’re basically being told ‘you may not be a boy, you may not be a girl.’ Parents don’t want that. I don’t think they want any of this stuff.”

Moreover, while Gov. DeSantis has not announced an intention to run for the Oval Office, many of those thinking of running or have already declared a candidacy (former President Trump and former U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley), see the Florida Governor as a threat.

Just after Haley announced her run, she immediately took a shot at DeSantis and the Parental Rights in Education bill (known by some as the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill), saying that it doesn’t “go far enough” because it apparently only stopped gender ideology discussions until the third grade.

While it is not certain whether DeSantis was addressing Haley’s comments specifically, he went on to mention that the bill addresses that concern.

“My view on the [Parental Rights in Education Bill], if you read it, it said K-3, but it also said beyond that had to be developmentally age appropriate. So, school boards are in a situation where they can make that judgment. And I think most of the school boards that we have now probably would make a similar judgment anyways.”

“But we need to focus on the basics of academics. We need to focus on reading, writing, math, all these different things. That is what unites parents and unites us,” stated DeSantis.