Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on April 18, paving the way for the return of religious guidance and patriotic organizations to public schools across the state.
“What we’re doing is really restoring the sense of purpose that our founding fathers wanted to see in education,” he said.
“In my 18 years as a teacher and a school-based principal, the most successful years were those when my schools had strong ties with our faith-based supports,” said Mr. Shanoff. “This materialized primarily in the form of mentorship advocacy and parental empowerment.”
If it were not for the work of local pastors already at work in the community, he said, we would not have graduated students who went on to become engineers, enlisted soldiers, officers, and coaches.
“The mentorship and guidance provided by faith-based leaders and those who work in our communities in this room have set countless students on a course for post-secondary success,” he said.
HB 931 establishes a school chaplain program that authorizes school districts and charter schools to allow voluntary chaplains to come on campus and provide additional counseling support. District school boards and charter school governing boards will determine chaplain assignments.
The governor, a Navy veteran, compared the integration of the religious leaders to the chaplains in the U.S. military and suggested the chaplains would be the religious leaders within the immediate community, such as Jewish rabbis, Catholic priests, and Evangelical pastors.
However, this venture to allow religious groups into the public sector triggered confusion and concern over which chaplains from which groups would be able to participate. The Satanic Temple recently said it was looking forward to participating in the program.
Mr. DeSantis made clear that the Satanic Temple would be kept out of the schools.
‘Using Common Sense’
“So we’re going to be using common sense when it comes to this, so you don’t have to worry about that.”Meanwhile, HB 1317 gives school districts the authority to allow certain “patriotic” organizations to visit schools and recruit student participation. Those organizations include volunteer groups such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America and the Boys & Girls Club of America, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and military-linked groups such as the Civil Air Patrol, The Marine Corps League, and the Navy Seal Cadet Corps. Little League Baseball and Future Farmers of America also made the list.
State Representative Berny Jacques, a Republican, thanked the governor for supporting the legislation and shared his own experience with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America.
Previously serving as a prosecutor, he said his inspiration to become a Big Brother was to “prevent one kid from ending up as a file on my desk.”
Mr. Jacques read off statistics that said 90 percent of Big Brothers and Big Sisters participants say their mentor helped them make better decisions, while 93 percent are able to move on to the next grade level, and 99 percent were not arrested.
“This bill will help us double down our efforts to make sure—to prevent these kids from going down the wrong path and will make sure that these kids become productive members of our society and not end up as a file on a prosecutor’s desk,” he said.
HB 1317 passed with near-unanimous approval from both legislative chambers: 39–0 in the Senate, with one not voting, and 118–0 in the House of Representatives, with two not voting.
However, HB 931 was a more contentious vote, and last month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) came out against its passing.
When asked about the ACLU’s stance, the governor called it a “bogus challenge” and does not expect it “to go anywhere.”
“What the ACLU is basically saying is that it’s okay to discriminate against religious organizations,” he said. “They think the church should be a second-class citizen. They think you should not have the same access to come to campus than any other student organization or other types of groups would have.”
The governor called it a form of “discrimination” to exclude religious groups from the school campuses and said that “you’re basically saying that God has no place” there.
No student is being forced to participate in any of these resources, he said, and they should have the right to pursue mentorship and counseling from faith leaders if they want to.
Both bills take effect on July 1, 2024.
