FL: Educational Hypocrisy On Display

Oh, Florida.

Maybe it was the principal who wasn't sure the Holocaust was a thing. Maybe it was the latest round of teaching mandates passed down, like the last minute mental health mandate. Or maybe he's just still cranky from his ongoing fight with Duval County Schools.

But Florida's education czar Richard Corcoran has had enough.

This guy.

Florida school districts had better fall in line. They had better be implementing the state-mandated Holocaust instruction. They had better be teaching what they're supposed to be teaching. They had better be following all the instructional standards and mandates. If not, he will use all the tools at his disposal. This, mind you, in the state that has vowed to end Common Core once and for all because federally mandated micromanagement is bad, but apparently state-level micromanagement is fine.

Critics suggest that this is one more attempt by Florida's government to come up with excuses to take over public school systems and hand them off to charter operators. This might seem like a bit of paranoia except for two things:

1) This is Florida we're talking about.

2) The various regulations and mandates do not apply to charter schools.

Yup. While Corcoran is railing against public schools that don't follow the state's mandates, charter schools are still free to teach about Jesus riding on dinosaurs and the flat earth and how the Holocaust is just a story fabricated to gin up sympathy for Jewish folks. It's not the first time that Florida's elected leaders have jettisoned accountability in favor of the ability to move those public tax dollars into private pockets.

But it's a reminder once again that Florida is working hard to bind and break public education while making sure that every day is Christmas for charter and voucher schools.