Charlie Crist blasts Ron DeSantis for infusing education with ‘politics and bias’

In a roundtable with parents Thursday, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist and a group of supporters slammed the state of public education in Ron DeSantis’ Florida.

Crist framed the “Parents for Crist” meeting as “a fight to get politics out of our schools and focus on what truly is best for Florida’s children.”

“Right now, unfortunately, parents and children are suffering because of leadership in our state,” Crist said. “Gov. DeSantis and his Republican Legislature are continually politically motivating attacks on our schools, LGBTQ children and frankly, those don’t agree with, or who won’t fall in line with, a right-wing agenda.”

“Make no mistake,” Crist continued, “this Governor is taking away the right of folks like you to send your kids to a school and get a good education that is free of politics and bias.”

Participants on the call offered details backing Crist’s claims.

Lisa Schurr of Sarasota County’s Support Our Schools bemoaned “the injection of politics into the mask issue” introduced “chaos.”

“Those who seek to destroy the public school system have moved on to the fiction of critical race theory being taught in schools, the elimination of the true U.S. history being taught in schools, and now we’re on to censorship of books,” Schurr said.

The goal in her eyes? “The full-scale destruction of the public education system and its replacement with for-profit, charter schools.”

The roundtable, held on Zoom, included testimony from a fifth grade student who said he had “five to ten substitute teachers.” He expressed concern that he won’t be ready for middle school and the overall “statewide teacher shortage.”

Others on the call offered anecdotal evidence of the same. Kim Hough noted that in some elective classes in her area, there hadn’t been dedicated teachers this academic year. She urged for better pay and regard of teachers as “professionals.”

Jabari Hosey of Families for Safe Schools said his group looked to “combat these attacks” on public schools and partners with his local district in Brevard County.

“We aren’t trying to kick them when they’re down. We know they’re down,” Hosey said.

Lindsey Blankenbaker of Pinellas County spoke as a mom and a leader in her local teacher’s union, extolling Crist’s approach to education as good for the industry and teachers and arguing Republicans seek to make “political pawns” out of students.

“Schools aren’t just buildings for us,” Blankenbaker said. “They are homes.”