GOP governor candidate, supported by Trump in Florida, wants textbooks revised – for "anti-Israel bias"



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Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, sees this issue as one of his education priorities: to ensure that all textbooks in public schools in the state are taken into account.

This is part of his educational platform, which is radically different from that of his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum, in a state where education is still controversial.

Florida, Deputy Governor then. Jeb Bush (R), has become a pioneer of two modern efforts to change public education – the movement of choice that seeks alternatives to traditional public schools and the pressure to hold schools, teachers and students scores.

Each year, in the Florida legislature, fierce debate takes place on the question of – and how much – public funds should be used to fund private and religious education in schools that do not follow the same rules as public schools. . Florida spends more money on these programs, or scholarship programs, than any other state; It has three programs covering 140,000 students.

DeSantis has been approved by President Trump, and he is so pro-Trump that he has an advertising campaign in which he is shown teaching his girl to "build a wall" with bricks. and read "It is apparently meant to be comic.

Although DeSantis and Gillum both proposed that the state devote more money to education, they have radically different platforms.

DeSantis, unsurprisingly, supports the kind of initiatives supported by Trump and his secretary of education, Betsy DeVos. This includes an extension of voucher and gift voucher programs that allow the use of public funds for private and religious classes. Among his other proposals:

  • Require that 80% of total public school funding be used "in class", although it does not explain what it means.
  • Eliminate "bureaucratic wastage and administrative inefficiency" and use savings to increase alternatives to traditional public schools and make efforts to recruit and train teachers.
  • Abandon the state's current content standards, which are a version of the controversial state standards of the common core.

About 5% of registered voters in Florida are Jewish, although they represent a larger percentage and may be decisive in some districts. They vote massively for Democrats, but that does not prevent Republican candidates from trying to conquer them.

DeSantis expressed his support for Israel and even accused Gillum of being "anti-Israel", which Gillum denies (and, interestingly, Jeanette Nuñez, deSantis running mate, accused Trump of being in 2016). Herald.)

Gillum has different priorities in education. He says, unspecifically, that he does not want to spend more money than the state on alternatives to traditional schools. This includes not only voucher programs but also charter schools, which are publicly funded but managed by the private sector. The slightly regulated charter business in Florida has been disrupted by scandals and school closures.

Gillum said he wanted to raise a billion dollars of new funds for education, rising from an increase in corporate tax from 5.5% to 7.75% and taxes that may result from the legalization of recreational marijuana. He would spend money for initiatives such as:

  • Increase teachers' salaries with a starting salary of $ 50,000. (According to the Florida Department of Education, the average salary of teachers for the 2017-2018 school year was $ 48,168).
  • Expand professional and technical training for students who do not attend college.
  • Expand early childhood education.

Polls this week show that Gillum is leading DeSantis by at least 5 percentage points.

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