Florida Citizens Alliance’s mission is to inform local communities about the bills being reviewed by the Florida Legislature. Our FLCA team breaks down and evaluates each year’s proposed education bills, then sends out easy-to-use Action Alerts to our over 110,000 supporters who then advocate for the bills that best protect our children and promote our core principles.
We believe change happens when concerned citizens take action in their local communities, so we equip our supporters with the information and resources they need to have a voice in Florida education!
2022 FLCA Legislative Agenda
- An aggressive bill, including strong penalties, to prohibit teaching Critical Race Theory and Action Civics in Florida K-12 public schools. We also believe it is appropriate to include protection from CRT for state employees and students at state supported colleges and universities.
- Authorize Universal Education Savings Accounts for all Florida K-12 students and expand parental choice options and eligibility for the McKay, Hope, Tax Credit Reading and Family Empowerment Scholarships.
- A Harmful to Minors materials bill to strengthen Florida’s Obscenity chapter 847 for Minors; to prevent exposure to pornographic and sexually explicit material. These materials harm children and potentially groom them to be trafficked.
- A strong Opt-In bill putting parents in control of their child’s education. Among other things such a bill would allow parents to prevent their children from being exposed to sexually explicit materials being used in the classroom or recommended on any k-12 reading list.
- Make clear that the legal definition of Instructional Materials used in public schools means ALL materials used in a classroom including but not limited to textbooks, teachers’ guides, online, supplemental and media center materials. All such materials should be subject to Florida law and State Board of Education rules.
- A state requirement that every school district must have a supplemental materials policy that requires any material used in the classroom to adhere to FS 1003.34, FS Chapter 847 and FS 1006.28, FS 1006.283, and all Florida Child Abuse Statutes (FS Chapter 827).
- Legislation prohibiting mandatory mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccinations for any resident of Florida specifically including minors.
- Installing video cameras in public school classrooms, at sporting events and at school sponsored meetings on school property.
Supporting Detail
- Prohibiting CRT- draft language has been provided to Rep Spencer Roach based on a law passed and signed into law in OK. Rep Fine also just released a comprehensive CRT bill we are assessing
- An ESA is being pursued by Americans For Prosperity and FLCA will aggressively support.
- FLCA will pursue based on the original 2021 language of SB 410 filed by Senator AM Rodriguez. Pacific Justice Institute has been retained to assist in updating SB 410 language and updating FLCA’s 2019 Porn Report with Public Records Requests for a list of 58 novels containing sexually explicit material. Link
- Draft opt in language Link
- Draft instructional materials language Link
- Draft Supplemental Language Link
- Separate Draft Language for prohibiting mandatory Masks and Vaccinations
Masks Link
Vaccination Link - Working with Rep Bob Rommel on Transparency language for the classroom that includes requirement for all teachers to be required to wear an active microphone anytime in the classroom or providing distance learning. The audio will be live streamed and recorded with penalties for teachers who fail to wear and activate their microphone.
2021 Victories for Florida's parents and children
- Success! Expanding School Choice was FLCA’s #1 Legislative Agenda Item. There were two very different versions in the House, CS/HB 7045 and Senate SB 48. The objectives of both bills were to consolidate and simplify Florida existing 6 scholarship programs and to expand eligibility to more families. There were pluses and minuses to both good bills, but CS/HB 7045 which we favored prevailed. We felt it was more expansive/inclusive and left the Hope Scholarship stand alone and in-tact.
- Success! Parents Right, after 3 years of hard work by many groups including FLCA. This was our #2 legislative agenda item. This was HB 241 by Rep. Grill with its compare SB 582 by Sen. Rodrigues. Parental Rights HB 241 is a bill codifying and protecting certain fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children.
- Success! “Equality in Athletic Sports “There was some real drama with this! Rep. Tuck’s House HB 1475 (which in our opinion was the stronger bill) passed the House several weeks ago. The compare bill SB 2012 got stuck in the Senate Rules Committee and appeared to be dead. With only a few days of session remaining, Rep. Tuck was successful amending HB 1475 language to another education Charter School bill CS/SB 1028. This Charter School Senate Bill had passed in the Senate and was messaged to the House. The amended CS/SB 1028 by Sen. Hutson passed in the House, was messaged back to the Senate and adopted without debate. The language in HB 1475 requires all agencies including universities and k-12 schools to designate each event as a men’s event, a women’s event or a co-ed event. Each participate for a women’s event must pass a test of having reproductive capability or a X chromosome test to participate. The Senate version SB 2012would have allowed for a testosterone test which can be manipulated.
- Success: Charter Schools SB 1028 by Sen Hutson and its compare bill HB 51 Rep. McClain. This concept was Item #6 on our FLCA Legislative Agenda. Frankly, it appeared to be stuck in Senate Rules but late in the process it was passed in the Senate and messaged to the House. Its key feature is what we call “Second Authorizer”. This means that a Florida University can authorize a k-12 charter school without the approval of the local school board. Competition is a great thing to break the monopoly control of local school districts! With the Athletic Sports bill attached this is a double win for parental choice and Florida’s students.
- Success: Safety for Religious Institutions, HB 259 by Rep. Byrd and SB 498 by Sen Gruters. This bill will allow people with concealed carry permits to carry firearms on the property of religious institutions like churches and synagogues.
- Success: Moment of Silence for Public Schools, HB 529 by Rep. Fine and SB 282 by Sen. Baxley. This bill requires all k-12 first period classroom teachers to hold a 1-2-minute moment of silence. It prohibits the teacher from making suggestions about the content of a student’s reflections. It also requires the teacher to encourage parents to discuss the moment of silence with their children about the content the child should use.
- Success (Kind of) Sex Education opt-out bill (Materials Harmful to Minors) SB 410 by Sen Rodriguez and HB 545 by Rep Chaney. This bill was largely a disappointment which ended up in a weak opt-out without any accountability. FLCA drafted the original versions of both bills that would have plugged the loopholes in Florida’s Child Obscenity laws with strong parental recourse and a very strong opt-in. The final version of the opt-out bill does require school districts to announce their curriculum and hold a hearing to allow objections. Our concerns are the school districts will pay lip service to the notification as they do with current pornography and sexually age inappropriate materials; the hearing will be a sham; and most parents will have no idea what obscene age- inappropriate materials their children are being subjected to. To clarify, opt-in means ultimate parent control while opt-out means government control.
- Partial Success Civics. There were 2 different sets of Civics bills that were passed in both chambers with 100% support:
- HB 5 and SB 1450 which are curriculum related bills by Rep. Zika and Sen. AM Rodriguez. These are excellent bills.
- HB 611 by Rep Diamond and SB 146 by Sen Brandes. We initially supported these but withdrew our support because it embraces a practicum that encourages the concept of Action Civics and continuing to teach our students that we are a democracy rather than a Constitutional Republic. Unfortunately, many of the legislators who supported HB 611/SB 146 were well meaning but failed to understand the progressives game plan to foster left wing activism.
Failed Employee Organizations SB 1014. This bill ended up being a combination of SB 78 by Sen. Rodrigues and SB 1014 by Sen Baxley. The bill established the rights of union employees for primarily education unions: Requiring certain employee organizations to petition the Public Employees Relations Commission for recertification; prohibiting an employee organization from having its dues and uniform assessments deducted and collected by a district school board; requiring an employee organization certified as the bargaining agent for a unit of Florida College System institution instructional personnel to include specified information and documentation in an application for registration renewal; requiring an employee organization certified as the bargaining agent for a unit of State University System institution instructional personnel to include specified information and documentation in an application for registration renewal, etc. We understand this bill was killed by Senate President Simpson and Chair of the Senate Rules Committee Sen Passidomo.