Stubborn Superintendent

After seeing letters jousting between the Florida Department of Education and our Indian River School District Superintendent, we see more defiance against conservative leadership in our state. Instead of adhering to the Parents’ Bill of Rights bill that Gov. DeSantis signed, some districts had to be notified that their penchant for more liberal policies, had to be reined in. Leon County updated its guidelines to keep boys from using girls’ facilities or sports teams. State School Chancellor, Jacob Oliva, may be satisfied with Leon County, but Indian River Superintendent Dr. David Moore, doesn’t seem to be as cooperative.

When Oliva criticized Moore for not catching up to the new law, the IRC School Board’s attorney’s response did not seem to include the spirit of the law. She redlined parts of the “RACIAL EQUITY POLICY” that Oliva had a problem with to salve the request to “update”, meaning revise. What had been part of IRC school policy said, “This policy confronts the institutional racism that results in predictably lower academic achievement for students of color…” Why would Dr. Moore want to work in a system that was racist? Where exactly is this racism? Who are “students of color” and who are not? Is color dictating academic performance? We had a whole Civil rights Movement in the 60’s to answer these questions. This blind rhetoric doesn’t help kids achieve in school. In fact, the “systemic racism” comments could be used by every day under achievers for not doing well.

So now the Policy Manual, sec. 2260.02 has been updated. It still is titled RACIAL EQUITY POLICY and proceeds to delineate in softer terms the same exact charge demanding equal outcomes, not equal opportunity. The first sentence of the revision reads, “To interrupt systems that perpetuate inequities.”

That sounds nicer, right?

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