Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. (left) likes to troll journalists on Twitter and stage feisty debates over preferred pronouns. Meanwhile, Florida’s SAT scores have dropped once again. The state ranks 45th in America. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
New rankings show Florida students are posting some of the lowest SAT scores in America.
We’re talking 46th place. Down another 17 points overall to 966, according to the combined reading and math scores shared by the College Board.
Florida trails other Southern states like South Carolina and Georgia. We trail states where more students take the test, like Illinois and Indiana.
We somehow now even slightly trail Washington, D.C. — a district long maligned as one of the supposedly worst in America, where all students take the test.
This should be an all-hands-on-deck crisis. Yet what are Florida education officials obsessing over?
Pronouns. And censoring books.
While other states focus on algebra and reading comprehension, Florida’s top education officials are waging wars with teachers about what kind of pronouns they can use and defending policies that have led to books by Ernest Hemingway and Zora Neale Hurston being removed from library shelves. We are reaping what they sow.
But perhaps the most disturbing thing about Florida’s current crop of top education officials isn’t just the misguided policies they’re pushing, it’s the way they behave. Like it’s all a joke. Like Twitter trolls.
They’re calling names, mocking those trying to have serious conversations about education and generally reveling in owning the libs.
A few months ago, Orlando Sentinel education reporter Leslie Postal spent weeks trying to get public records about a newly hired state education employee. Postal just wanted to explain to taxpayers how their money was being spent. But state officials refused to answer questions.
So Postal wrote up the piece, and Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz shared the piece on Twitter (now X) with a two-word comment: “Cry more!”
For those of you who don’t speak troll, “Cry more” is a response used by some social-media users — usually those juvenile in age or intellect — to mock someone who is unhappy. The folks at Urban Dictionary, who revel in all things trolly, define “Cry More” as a “phrase used in online games when someone is getting owned, and they b*tch about it.”
The game in question here, mind you, was the Sentinel’s two-month quest to get answers about how the state was spending tax dollars. And the response from the state’s top education official was: “Cry more!” What a role model for students.
That’s just one example. Last week, after I wrote a column about rampant book-censorship in the state — with one district shelving 300 titles — State Board of Education Member Ryan Petty responded (at quarter ’til 1 in the morning): “Just dumb. This passes as journalism.” Followed by a clown emoji.
OK, for argument’s sake, let’s say I’m the dumbest clod to ever set foot in the Sunshine State. Petty still wouldn’t answer any of the direct questions posed in both the column and on Twitter. Specifically, if the goal isn’t widespread book-banning, why won’t his education department provide a definitive list of what books it believes students shouldn’t have access to in school?
Petty opted for emojis over answers, because that’s what trolls do.
A member of the state board of education offers his insightful take on book censorship in Florida schools
If this is all "dumb" – and the goal isn't just to sow chaos – why won't DOE provide a definitive list of what books it believes students shouldn't have access to in school? https://t.co/QDGSYLFukm
The responses on Twitter to Diaz and Petty — both appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis — were about what you’d expect. One user told Petty: “My ninth grader could have crafted a more articulate response.” Several users responded similarly to Diaz’s “Cry More!” post, questioning his ability to maturely discuss policy and referring back to a Miami Herald investigation into student claims of “inappropriate behavior” by Diaz back when he was a teacher; claims Diaz said were bogus smears.
None of this did a thing to address this state’s education issues. Yet that’s where we are in Florida these days, mired in culture wars and trolling each other.
We also saw something similar last week when Diaz refused to directly answer questions from Orange County Public Schools about whether teachers were allowed to honor the requests of transgender students who wanted to be addressed with different pronouns — if the teachers wanted to and if those students also had their parents’ written permission. (Think about how bizarre it is that schools must even ask that question … in the so-called “parental rights” state.)
In his response to the district, Diaz offered a theatrical and condescending response that referred to “false” pronouns but which school officials concluded didn’t actually answer the question in a straightforward manner. Just more troll games … involving a population of teens more prone to self-harm and suicide, no less.
As far as the SAT goes, the test certainly has its share of legitimate critics. But it’s still one of the best apples-to-apples metrics we have for student learning.
Yet hardly any Florida media organizations even covered the October release of the new SAT scores that showed Florida’s poor showing. Why? Because we’ve been trained to follow the bouncing-ball, culture-war debate of the day.
So we see plenty of coverage about Florida supposedly ranking No. 1 in “educational freedom” by partisan political groups and scant addition to real education issues.
Call me old-fashioned, but I like hard numbers more than political posturing or magazine rankings. So do others who actually care about and study education.
Paul Cottle, a physics professor who authors a blog that focuses on STEM education, noted Florida’s increasingly cruddy SAT scores back in October when they were released — when everyone else was focused on the debate-of-the-day.
Cottle noted that Florida’s math scores for 4th graders were solid but that the SAT scores for graduating seniors were so bad, they suggested something was going awry for students before Florida schools sent them into the real world.
Cottle called the showing “a sad state of affairs.”
He’s right. Yet we’re getting precisely the educational environment and results that our culture-warring politicians are cultivating — an environment where trolls thrive, even if students don’t.
I just posted the Joe My God article on this. Here is the story in more detail. Hugs.
“Fearmongering has been Ken Paxton’s main tactic in enforcing these abortion bans,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel at Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents Cox, said in a statement. “He is trying to bulldoze the legal system to make sure Kate and pregnant women like her continue to suffer.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday threatened to prosecute any doctors involved in providing an emergency abortion to a woman, hours after she won a court order allowing her to obtain one for medical necessity.
Paxton said in a letter that the order by District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin did not shield doctors from prosecution under all of Texas’s abortion laws, and that the woman, Kate Cox, had not shown she qualified for the medical exception to the state’s abortion ban.
Paxton said in a statement accompanying the letter that Guerra Gamble’s order “will not insulate hospitals, doctors, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws.”
The letter was sent to three hospitals where Damla Karsan, the doctor who said she would provide the abortion to Cox, has admitting privileges.
“Fearmongering has been Ken Paxton’s main tactic in enforcing these abortion bans,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel at Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents Cox, said in a statement. “He is trying to bulldoze the legal system to make sure Kate and pregnant women like her continue to suffer.”
Cox, 31, of the Dallas-Fort Worth area filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order preventing Texas from enforcing its near-total ban on abortion in her case, saying her continued pregnancy threatened her health and future fertility. Guerra Gamble said she was granting the order at a hearing Thursday morning.
Cox’s lawyers have said her lawsuit is the first such case since the U.S. Supreme Court last year allowed states to ban abortion.
Cox’s fetus was diagnosed on Nov. 27 with trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality that usually results in miscarriage, stillbirth or death soon after birth.
A few abortion rights demonstrators remain in the crowd after hours of public comments and discussion as Denton’s city council meets to vote on a resolution seeking to make enforcing Texas’ trigger law on abortion a low priority for its police force, in Denton, Texas, June 28, 2022. REUTERS/Shelby Tauber/File Photo
Cox, who is about 20 weeks pregnant, said in her lawsuit that she would need to undergo her third Caesarian section if she continues the pregnancy. That could jeopardize her ability to have more children, which she said she and her husband wanted.
“The idea that Ms. Cox wants desperately to be a parent, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability, is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” said Guerra Gamble in Austin, Texas, state court, at Thursday’s hearing.
The judge’s ruling applies only to Cox, and does not expand abortion access more broadly.
Cox’s lawyer, Molly Duane of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told reporters on a call after the hearing that Guerra Gamble’s order allowed Cox to obtain the abortion. She declined to provide any details about Cox’s immediate plans, citing concerns for her and her doctors’ safety.
“I want to emphasize how unforgivable it is that Kate had to beg for healthcare in court,” Duane said. “No one should have to do this and the reality is 99 percent of people cannot.”
The state’s abortion ban includes only a narrow exception to save the mother’s life or prevent substantial impairment of a major bodily function. Cox said in her lawsuit that, although her doctors believed abortion was medically necessary for her, they were unwilling to perform one without a court order in the face of potential penalties including life in prison and loss of their licenses.
Johnathan Stone, a lawyer for the state, had said at Thursday’s hearing that Cox had not shown she qualified for the exception. He said showing that would require a more through hearing on evidence, rather than a temporary restraining order.
Cox’s husband, Justin Cox, and Dr. Karsan are also plaintiffs in the case.
Karsan is also one of 22 plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit seeking a broader order protecting Texas women’s right to abortions their doctors deem medically necessary, in which the state’s highest court heard arguments last week. The court has not ruled in that case.
Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Richard Chang and David Gregorio
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is considering legal action against a Wisconsin-based group calling for his resignation, he said last week.
“To think they’re going to continue to bully teachers is outrageous,” Walters said, referring to the Freedom from Religion Foundation. “The options we’re looking at are very wide, very broad. Could be legal memos. Could be lawsuits.”
Walters and the FFRF took turns calling each other bullies after the organization complained to Prague Public Schools about Christian prayers being including in the elementary building’s daily activities. The district agreed to discontinue the prayers.
Parents in Prague are upset after finding out that their kids have been going to Bible studies at school, given Bibles, and have had a morning prayer over the intercom the past couple of weeks at Prague Elementary School. “There are kids who are either getting picked on or bullied because they don’t believe these things and aren’t choosing to be a part of these bible studies,” said one parent, who wanted to remain anonymous.
“From how I understand it is that the kids went to the Guidance Counselor and the Counselor helped organize it and get it going but the kids had to lead it, it’s a loophole in the law.” The anonymous parent has four kids who go to Prague Elementary and said one came home with two Bibles and told her she was headed to school to learn about God. She also said that every morning over the intercom there was a morning prayer because all of the kids “wanted to do it,” according to school staff.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters took to social media voicing his opinion on the Prague Public School District’s decision to stop daily prayer broadcasts.
“We’re going to continue to fight for religious liberty and religious freedom here in the state of Oklahoma,” said Walters. The fallout comes after News 4 talked to parents upset their children had been going to Bible study and prayer was being done over the intercom, both actions the Freedom from Religion Foundation says are unconstitutional.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation is calling for Walters to resign. The Prague School District released a statement stating its leadership “is dedicated to following the law and protecting the rights of every student to freely exercise his or her religion.”
Walters appeared here last month when he joined the Trump campaign to “stop the cancer of teachers unions.”
In August, Walters approved far-right PragerU’s climate change-denying, anti-LGBTQ, racist videos for use in Oklahoma public schools.
The FBI is currently investigating Walters’ department for misspending $1.7M in education funds on items such as “kitchen appliances, power tools, furniture, and entertainment.”
Walters has posted a ranting video in which he baselessly claimed that China is secretly funding Tulsa’s public schools. His claim was immediately denounced by Tulsa officials.
In June, Walters appeared here when he announced that Oklahoma’s public schools will soon have a mandatory daily prayer, the mandatory posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms, and a mandatory high school course in “Western civilization.”
In July, Walters declared that Oklahoma public school students will be taught that the infamous 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was not inspired by racism.
Many expect Walters to run for governor when fellow Christian nationalist Gov. Kevin Stitt is term-limited out of office. He recently headlined at the Family Research Council’s annual far-right “Pray, Vote, Stand” summit.
In the video below, Walters rages that it’s “outrageous” for groups such as the FFRF to “weaponize lawsuits” against mandatory Christian indoctrination in public schools. Watch the clip.
OK Schools Chief says he will allow prayers to be read over loudspeakers in schools, and when the Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional they “weaponized the govt against christianity. When they pulled prayer in schools in 1962, what we’ve seen is moral decay.” pic.twitter.com/DNy8yDnUlF
Oh I hated that stupid argument. The flip side of that was “Well, I’m straight, and I can’t just marry anyone that I want, and neither should you.” I would say that even my 8 year old niece understand marriage better than you.
They actually believe this country was based on christian religion, when the opposite is true, our forefathers wanted religion out of government completely.
The majority of those that stay have no other choices. They aren’t the brightest kids, they have been isolated all of their lives, they likely haven’t been educated even to the most minimal of standards but they can recite the bible. The mean ones are the smart ones that are groomed for leadership. They are taught that they a superior in every way, yet when they look upon what their elders say is their legacy they see a failing business model and must choose between the message of their faith and death by fire for their enemies; which would be us.
It was this way back in Pilgrim days. Mandatory. They’d come fetch you against your will if you failed to show up for your weekly brainwashing session.
It’s not his money at risk and it’ll get him elected governor. (This what Greg Abbott has done in Texas to try and get himself elected prez someday, I’m convinced of it.)
“We’re going to continue to fight for religious liberty and religious freedom here in the state of Oklahoma,” said Walters.
The freedom to coerce non-believers? To single out and stigmatise anyone who doesn’t go along with his denomination’s interpretation of whatever? I wonder if he keeps it up, will we see a drastic lowering of the grades of any student who doesn’t participate?
The freedom to sabotage a kid’s entire future because they / their parents don’t follow your dogma?
And in today’s Washington Post, there is a hearing in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to decide whether parents may “opt-out” of lessons for their children if the lessons are in any way related to LBGT issues.
So you know where this is going — parents have the right to exempt their kids from anything about LBGT issues, but have no right to exempt them from christian religious training.
You want prayer? Go to church. School is for education, not indoctrination. Every American has the right to go to church and pray. Every child has the right to education without superstition.
Isn’t it amazing how “religious zealots” squall like a baby when their ability to force their religious ideas upon others gets challenged!!! Walters is a perfect poster boy for the riddance in government of religious rethuglicans.
You know, I stand behind people believing what they want in this nation, but what is wrong with these Christians who can’t keep it to themselves? Why do they have to keep pushing their beliefs onto everyone else? They’re exhausting. Do what you want at home but this is a free country, NOT a Christian nation.
“Bully”? It is actually bullying to force kids to bow to your God, especially when there are probably non-Christians among the student body who should never be forced to worship someone they don’t believe in.
Chris Christie thinks Trump will be convicted in J6 trial:
"He's going to go on trial the day before Super Tuesday. I believe he's going to be convicted in that January 6th trial in Washington DC. If he's our nominee he won't be able to vote for himself." pic.twitter.com/RZD6i0ZjiM
BREAKING: Speaker Johnson releases the blurred photos of the people “who participated in the events of that day” that he doesn’t want “to be charged by the DOJ.” https://t.co/l44ehACEzBpic.twitter.com/GAERaIY6Gh
— Jim Stewartson, Anti-disinfo activist 🇺🇸🇺🇦💙 (@jimstewartson) December 5, 2023
“When the homosexual comes out of the closet and he is bragging about his activities, demanding not only acceptance, but endorsement, that is a nation that God is taking his hand off of. And that’s exactly who we are.
“Here’s a principle that I want you to never forget: Sin often begins manifesting itself even by the transformation of your characteristics. About 80 percent of the time before a homosexual opens his mouth, you can see by the look on his face that he’s—I won’t say the word ‘gay’; it almost slipped out—a sodomite will always reflect it in his countenance. And if he doesn’t naturally, he’ll learn it by those he hangs around with.
“We are spending billions of dollars to keep these sodomites alive, and we should out of compassion. But it can be cured overnight by repentance, by a change of lifestyle.
“There will be certain death among those who’ve been practicing, but I believe God would so reveal himself that we’d find the cure and instead of just keeping them alive with drugs, they’d find a genuine cure if they hadn’t already aborted the one that had the cure.” – Prominent evangelical Rick Scarborough.
Scarborough has a long history of launching virulent attacks against LGBTQ people, calling them “sodomites” and declaring that AIDS is God’s “judgment as a result of an immoral act,” while insisting in 2015 that “God would probably give us the cure for AIDS today” if the U.S. stopped supporting gay rights. Kirk’s Turning Point USA and several other right-wing organizations—including Liberty Counsel, Patriot Academy, ACT for America, and Liberty Pastors—have partnered with Scarborough and his Recover America organization.
Scarborough last appeared here in October 2015 when he produced a copy of the Obergefell ruling during a sermon, threw it to the floor, and proceeded to walk on it. The screenshot above is from his recent appearance on Mike Huckabee’s TBN show.
Rick Scarborough complains that "we are spending billions of dollars to keep these sodomites alive," claiming that "they’d find a genuine cure" for AIDS if gay people would simply repent and "if they hadn’t already aborted the one that had the cure.” https://t.co/BD5M8citpGhttps://t.co/3cye58kVWJpic.twitter.com/NSemf5p3HZ
PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Rick Scarborough says he’s willing to burn to death to stop gay marriage. Rick Scarborough leads Christian coalition which declares willingness to go to prison over same-sex marriage. Rick Scarborough says God would be “perfectly justified” in nuking America because we have gay ambassadors. Rick Scarborough suggests filing a class action lawsuit against homosexuality itself.
”We are spending billions of dollars to keep these sodomites alive…”
Just as WE are spending billions to keep heteros alive, and children educated, and for the military, and roads & bridges through our taxes and insurance. It’s what our society does.
You know who doesn’t pay for most of those? CHURCHES
Rick Scarborough is equating homosexuality with sodomy. Scientific research has shown that many str8 men enjoy butt sex with their wives and girlfriends while having little to no interest in doing it with other men.
We know that the majority of sodomitical buttfucking is heterosexual. While a much smaller percentage of them do it, there are lots more of them than us, so the actual numbers are greater.
His harangue is not only crazy and immoral, he’s condemning a big number of het sodomites in his own congregation, without (seemingly) knowing it.
Remember, being a “virgin” is very important in church culture, but buttfucking doesn’t affect a young woman’s virgin-ness, since Jesus only counts vaginal sex. So for centuries, lots of the opposite sex couples in christian congregations have had buttsex before they got married, to preserve the woman’s virginity and to not get pregnant. And some of them like it a lot and continue after they get married.
One straight woman friend told me that getting buttfucked gave her multiple long, rolling, crazy fine orgasms that were very different from her vagina-fucked orgasms. And her boyfriend liked fucking her ass as much as her vagina.
Don’t ever let these hemorrhoid-ridden assholes claim that there’s such a thing as “gay sex”. There’s not – every possible sexual activity same sex couples do is also done by opposite sex couples. Except maybe mutual docking.
Fuck you and your horrific god. I am 76 and had HIV 37 years. It is a disease, not a punishment, asshole. If there were punishment for mindless meanness, you would be in hell today.
its only really punishing in developing parts of the world with little access to healthcare and grown men who have HIV think the only way to get rid of it is to give it to a virgin girl. The children suffer the most.
Meanwhile these Christocreeps think they’re being horribly oppressed if someone ‘offends’ them. They’re the ones that terrified of death they’ll torture children to appease their idea of a homophobic God dumping them into their Hell over not obeying their own ‘rules’ they can’t even keep it in their own pants about.
Since the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, extremist settlers in the West Bank have been emboldened, displacing more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to the United Nations.
