Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Florida's Commissioner of Education Talks What's Ahead In State Schools

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Florida's Commissioner of Education Talks What's Ahead In State Schools · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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  The Morning Show with Preston Scott. Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean
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  that really got out of hand fast on WFLA thirty five, almost thirty six
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  minutes now past the hour. It is Thursday, June twenty ninth, on
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  The Morning Show with Preston Scott Show four thousand, nine hundred and fifty eight.
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  Great to be with you. Jared running the program and joining me on
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  the phone line is the Commissioner of Education for the Florida Department of Education,
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  State of Florida, Mannydaz Commissioner. How are you your morning, Preston,
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  Great to be with you. Doctor Ed Moore sends his regards. He just
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  walked out of our studio and said, hello, Oh tell him, I
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  send regards. Great guy, I think you just did on the radio,
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  my friend. Tell me big picture. How are things as you get ready
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  for another school year? Things are well. I mean we uh, we've
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  had a great session with a lot of educational policy. Uh, some of
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  it that's been in the headlines, some of it not, but really important.
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  And we really had a successful first year of our of our new fast
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  Progress monitoring testing system, which was very quiet. Uh. You know,
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  we got great reviews from our superintendence, from our principals and teachers on getting
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  information back to parents, back to teachers so that they can actually use it
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  in helping our kids u instead of waiting until the next year when the information
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  is basically useless at a kids in another classroom. So this this transformation to
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  tappen really was It started when I was in the Senate. I actually wrote
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  the bill, but it was a it was a rust from from governor to
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  Santis that you know, was looking to reduce testing and make it more efficient
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  and effective. And I think parents are okay with having some tests if they're
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  going to get the data and understand how to help their child. And I
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  think this is what's happening with progress Monitoring, and so we're very excited as
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  it goes forward. And you know there are no school grades as a transition
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  year. Commissioner Manny Diaz with this Florida Department of Education, Manny, let's
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  talk for just a quick second about the expansion of parental rights and education in
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  the legislative session. We just saw about two weeks ago the NAA, which
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  obviously has its roots in Florida, with the FAA hand out in a kit
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  to its teachers, its members on LGBTQ indoctrination pronoun us and how to integrate
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  it into the classrooms. How in the world are you going to make sure
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  that districts are adhering to state law? Listen, Preston. This is another
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  example of when the critics of these laws that unfortunately have had to be passed
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  here in Florida and other states show that say that this isn't happening. Well,
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  here's the National Teachers Union trying to push down these items that have nothing
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  to do with what you know, as Governor Destanes says, basic education,
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  getting our kids to read, write, social studies, Civics, etc.
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  And they're pushing an agenda. Why is a teachers union pushing an agenda?
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  What does this have to do with the benefiting teachers. It doesn't. It's
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  an agenda. And here in Florida we've passed laws and now and the department
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  is enforcing it. We are ever vigilant, Preston, to make sure that
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  the laws are being followed. We are on top of our districts, we
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  talk to our superintendents, but here and there you always see, unfortunately,
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  these cases, and I want to make it clear. Look the vast majority
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  of our teachers, vast majority are incredible. They come to work every day
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  to help our kids, to teach our kids, to make sure that our
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  kids are learning how to read and do maths. But there's always folks who
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  have an agenda, and clearly this the NA and they've been for closing schools,
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  masking kids, and now for this ridiculous, absurd tool kit that has
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  nothing to do with education. Maybe they should focus on making sure that all
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  of our kids can read, making sure that our teachers continue to be professionally
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  trained so that our kids can do math and you know, and teach accurate
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  history and social studies instead of worrying about these topics that should be left to
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  parents, and parents know best of when to have conversations with their child.
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  Yeah, the irony of pushing specific pronouns when the kids are pushing it too.
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  Don't even know what a pronoun is. Glenn Beck, You want him
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  on that Radio America can handle the truth. You need him on that radio
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  nine to noon on WFLA. Join me on the program for a few more
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  minutes, making some time. Florida Commissioner of Education Many Diaz and Commissioner Staying
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  with the legislative stuff for just a second longer. House bill won the expansion
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  of school choice. What's that role out look like, Well, it's been
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  it's been an incredible reception from parents, as we expected Preston, you know,
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  after after covid UH school choice has really blown up. I mean,
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  I've obviously for ten years in the legislature, have been a huge advocate governor
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  to Santis since he came in after being elected into tousand and eighteen. You
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  know, push the envelope. We worked on the Family Empowerment Scholarship together,
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  created it in twenty nineteen and he signed it. And this is this is
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  just showing that parents want to be involved directly in the education of their kids,
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  want to make the right choice. And at the end of the day,
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  it just goes back to this, look, the decision is not for
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  us to make. Our Our role is to put out there these options and
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  for parents to make the best decision for their individual kids, because you know,
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  you may have multiple kids and each one may have a different UH setting
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  that is best for them. And so I think Florida now you can see
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  there was a little chatter before session about Arizona. In other places Florida clearly
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  leads the nation in school choice, number one in education according to the US
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  News and World Report, number one in education freedom according to Herrihage. All
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  of that due to Governor the Santist and his push and this thing is rolling
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  out and parents and look, it's going to take a couple of years for
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  attacted to settle in, for parents to really understand what options they have under
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  an educational savings account. Where is the best place for someone apparent listening here
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  in the state of Florida to get information? Well, look, you can
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  go to our website at the Florida Department of Education FLDOE dot org. Or
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  you can go to Step Up for Students, which is one of the organizations
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  that process is the scholarship. Because we don't process the scholarship directly. We
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  have scholarship funding organizations Step Up for Students. But there is under the Choice
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  page at the Florida Department of Education information that you can find, and there's
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  emails in case you need more information. Our staff would be happy to answer
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  any of those questions and guide parents. I know parents are looking fumishally right
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  now at that and if if they want to take this option. Go go
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  ahead and go on there, take a look at what it requires and apply.
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  Because we're getting into it sounds like we're in the you know, in
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  the summer, but you know, school starts in August, So folks need
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  to figure out where we're we're the you know, what school fits the needs
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  of their kids or if they're going to do something else with the educational uh
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  savings account that's flexible to the best fit the needs of their kids. They
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  need to start planning that now. Florida Commissioner of Education man IDAs with us
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  for a couple more minutes. Final question, the lawsuit against the Biden administration
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  on accreditation. What's the status. Well, the lawsuit was just filed by
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  Florida thanks to the leadership of Governor to Santus and of course are a great
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  Attorney General Ashley Moody. Uh. This this laws is really about federalism,
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  Preston, and I know you understand that. Well, you know, the
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  state of Florida has twelve universities and the state university system. We have twenty
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  eighth state colleges under the Department of Education, and the federal rule, their
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  own rule says that the colleges and universities can choose the accredit of their best
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  fits them. The monopoly was broken up by their own rule, and now
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  what they're trying to do is they're trying to continue to sty me because they
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  don't like some of the things that Florida is doing. And like the governor
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  said, why do we have a third unelected party trying to drive down these
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  woke policies into our colleges and universities. Why do we have someone as a
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  gatekeeper who's had this monopoly that was broken up by their own federal rule and
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  now they're they're trying not to enforce it. And so once again Florida takes
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  the lead. And I know I've gotten from other states, other state leaders
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  have reached out applauding us, but you know, sometimes it takes the courage
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  to lead, and Governor the Santas has clearly shown that. And so once
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  again we take on the Biden administration who is trying to do things that are
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  just absurd and trying to not, you know, break what is the basic
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  principles of this country and federalism. Once again, they did it, you
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  know, they tried, they're trying to do it with Title nine and women's
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  sports. They're trying to do it with higher ED and not allowing the universities
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  to go and be accredited where they best fit. Commissioner as always, thank
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  you for the time. I know wedging it in your schedule as a challenge,
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  but I appreciate you doing it and we'll hopefully talk again next month.
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  Yes, yes, sir, you got it. We'll see you next month.
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  Thank you, sir. Manny Diaz, Commissioner of Education for the State
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  of Florida. Always love talking education on this program. Here in the Morning
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  Show with Preston's kind