DeSantis touts partnership with conservative groups in education budget proposal

Gov. Ron DeSantis outlined his education budget proposal Tuesday in a wide-ranging speech along familiar policy and culture-war themes — such as academic freedom and civic education.

The governor claimed Florida has the best education in the country by being ranked the number one state for education freedom by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and the number one state for higher education by U.S. News and World Report.

Florida high schools were also ranked 5th in the country by U.S. News and World Report.

The Nation’s Report Card found that in 2022, while Florida’s 4th graders performed higher than the national average in Mathematics and Reading, 8th graders performed about average in Math, Reading and Science.

“We’ve also been proud to take the lead on ensuring robust American civics education throughout the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “We also created a program called the Florida Civic Seal of Excellence, which gives $3,000 bonuses to every teacher that goes through this civics training program.”

DeSantis called for a program to receive $45 million in bonuses for teachers who take a civics curriculum class designed by Christian conservative Hillsdale College and the Heritage Foundation.

Eleven thousand teachers have been through the training already, DeSantis said, but some of them have reported that it contains “a very strong Christian fundamentalist way toward analyzing different quotes and different documents,” according to the Miami Herald.

Launched in Jan. 2023, the Civics Seal of Excellence Endorsement Course is 50-60 hours of introduction and five modules “aligned to the revised civics and government standards,” according to the Florida Department of Education.

DeSantis said that the program’s curriculum was partly developed by the Heritage Foundation and Hillsdale College – a Christian liberal arts school in Michigan that has become a darling to Florida education officials. DeSantis had previously praised the New College of Florida for trying to be more like Hillsdale, where the university’s new president, Richard Corcoran, spoke in 2021. 

The Princeton Review ranked Hillsdale as having the third most conservative students in the country.

DeSantis also advocated for $1.25 billion in funds for teachers’ salaries, an increase of $250 million. 

“We don’t want [the funding] spent on bureaucracy or red tape. We want it to go to teachers,” DeSantis said.

Florida ranks 48th in teacher pay and 43rd in per-student-spending, according to the National Education Association. Despite the hike in funding, the Florida Education Association, the statewide education employee union, said DeSantis’ budget proposal doesn’t go far enough, and favors private education at the expense of public schools.

Andrew Spar, the Florida teacher union’s president, said in a statement that a poll conducted by the FEA showed that voters want pay increases for public school teachers and courses that “allow students to experience and understand the various cultures and lifestyles.”

“Florida voters know the importance of supporting all teachers and staff who work in Florida’s public schools,” Spar said. “The governor’s proposal today made it clear he will continue to devalue Florida’s hard-working educators.” 

The FEA said their poll indicated that 86% of voters want Florida to rank in the top 10 nationally in teacher pay. Florida teachers would need to average over $75,000 in salary to clear that benchmark, according to Education Week.

DeSantis also called for $1.7 billion for the Florida College System, which oversees the state’s community colleges, and $3.7 billion for the State University System, which runs four-year institutions such as the University of Florida.

The Florida Board of Governors did not respond to a request for comment.

The governors also emphasized funding for Bright Futures Scholarships, a program funded by the Florida lottery in which high school students who meet academic requirements receive tuition assistance.

“To be able to [go to college] and have virtually no debt and get a degree from a prestigious university – you don’t have that option in very many places in the United States,” DeSantis said, adding that it’s possible by Florida’s state university costs, which are ranked as the lowest in the country by the Education Data Initiative.