It’s been one week since Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill into law, and though it doesn’t take effect until July, we are still getting a steady stream of woke (and incorrect) commentary from The Usual Suspects on how the law will ban teachers from saying “gay” in public school classrooms, despite the fact that nowhere in the bill is the word “gay” even mentioned.
What the law’s critics have consistently avoided commenting on is the actual substance of its most “controversial” aspects, namely the part where it prohibits age-inappropriate instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3. Once again, from the text of the law:
“Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
As you might have guessed, the reason the law’s staunchest opponents – including Disney – won’t address those particular points about the law is because they, as DeSantis has pointed out in so many words, are uncomfortable with being put in the position of having to explain why they support instruction on sensitive sexual matters to children who can barely tie their shoelaces and pick out their daily outfits, much less understand anything about sexual orientation and transgenderism.
In the past, when the Biden White House was asked about the bill, their responses were predictable and lame. But when pressed by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy on Monday about what age they think it’s okay for students to be taught about the issues outlined in the law, press secretary Jen Psaki weaved all over the place, first spouting off talking points about how the law was “hateful” and how the White House supported alleged parental concerns about children not being “treated equally.”
She then went off the rails in a complete dodge by pressing Doocy for examples of children being taught about these issues:
DOOCY: “At what age does the White House think that students should be taught about sexual orientation and gender identity?”
PSAKI: “This law…is politicians in Florida propagating misinformed, hateful policies that do absolutely nothing to address the real issues.” pic.twitter.com/bgdKLafk1M
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 4, 2022
These were completely unacceptable answers, but they tell us pretty much everything about how the Biden White House desperately wants the substantive part of this issue to go away.
To Psaki’s question to Doocy, yes there are numerous examples of these situations happening in Florida classrooms and she would know that if she had paid attention to the press conference DeSantis had after the bill signing where parents talked about their experiences with “woke” educators who were undermining their parental rights.
But let’s not kid ourselves here. Even had Doocy supplied her with examples, Psaki would have said she needed “context” before being able to comment, and then when she got it she’d still have come out and spouted the same meaningless points that avoided the actual substance of the law.
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Further, the White House tapdancing all around this topic by suggesting they stand shoulder to shoulder with parents who are supposedly worried about their kids receiving unequal treatment is a clear signal they are trying to reframe this whole subject into one where the parental rights of those who have LGBTQ children are the ones whose rights are being violated.
Because Democrats have taken such a beating at the ballot box over the last year or so on the issue of parental say in educational matters, they really want to flip that narrative around prior to the midterms and make themselves out to be the defender of parents instead of it being the other way around.
It won’t work, though, especially when you consider the rash of polling that shows Republicans with an edge on generic Congressional balloting, and which also shows education as a top concern of voters.
When Democrat radicals started trying to force the implementation of CRT in public schools and when they forced mask mandates in schools, they awakened a sleeping giant in parents. And now that they are awake, they’re paying attention to other attempts by these same Democrats to take parents out of the equation when it comes to what children are told about gender ideology and sexual orientation.
That’s not going to fly at all with most people who have young children, even on the Democrat side if one recent poll done by a Democrat pollster is a reliable indicator.
The Biden White House wants the Florida parental rights law issue to go away and the sooner the better because the longer this drags out the more people will be reminded of just how embarrassingly far to the left Democrats have gone on the public education front in recent years. And the more voters are informed of it, the more likely we’ll see similar stories play out in November across the country similar to what we saw in Virginia in November 2021, with control of the House and Senate potentially going back to Republicans.
Final word from my RedState colleague Bonchie:
They will never answer the question because even they are embarrassed of their stance. https://t.co/UNVUWtbw0I
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 4, 2022
‘Nuff said.
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