Rick and Keith Speak to Dr. Lawrence Gray about the new Florida B.E.S.T. Math Standards. What will they be like? How will it be different than Common Core Math? How will it affect teachers and how they educate our kids? Parents in the State of Florida have waited a long time for this moment. Find out EVERYTHING you need to know about the latest exciting news in the education of our kids in Florida!

Dr. Lawrence Gray: https://math.umn.edu/directory/lawrence-gray

Often we talk about standards, but why are they so important and what should we look for? Mark Bauerlein joins Rick and Keith on the podcast! He is an English professor at Emory University and senior editor of First Things journal. There is exciting news about the new standards in Florida, but what should we be looking for and what will be the best for our kids? Find out more on today's show.

Mark Bauerlein: http://english.emory.edu/home/people/faculty/faculty_pages/bauerlein%20emeriti.html

Florida Citizens Alliance Website:https://floridacitizensalliance.com/liberty/

When A Government Entity interacts with our children, we must know and understand what is happening. Rick and Keith speak with Erin Grall, Florida State Representative from District 54, about The Parents Bill Of Rights. They discuss why this is such an important bill moving through the House and Senate this legislative session. They talk about the details and how you can get involved in helping promote parental involvement and how we can bring families back to the center of decision making.

HB 1059 : http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/1059/ByCategory

Rep. Erin Grall: https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=4637&LegislativeTermId=87

The health of our kids is vitally important, both mental and physical. Rick and Keith speak with Bonnie Bee from The Mustard Seed Ranch of Florida. They work to foster positive mentoring relationships with youth that are in need of support. The purpose of each interaction will be to encourage the development of healthy self-esteem, self-respect and decision-making tools. Learn more about this great endeavor and how you can help.

Visit Their Website - https://www.tmsrf.org/

Visit The FLCA Website - https://floridacitizensalliance.com/liberty/

Rick and Keith have been following the Parental Consent Bill on Abortion in Tallahassee with great interest. The concern is that too many people are not following what specifically is happening at the moment. Anthony Verdugo is with The Christian Family Coalition of Florida and he joins the podcast to discuss in detail what this bill is all about. Our children have to be held closely and carefully before the age of maturity. So why is there such pushback against parental consent before having an abortion? Who are the forces fighting this common-sense legislation? Find out on today's show.

Christian Family Coalition of Florida

"The Christian Family Coalition works to introduce pro-family legislation at the state and local levels of government. We inform and educate citizens on where candidates stand on the issues that affect the traditional family unit."

Follow HB 265

Rick and Keith are joined by Steve Vernon, an FLCA board member, to catch up on some of the bills in Tallahassee. The first is HJR 157 which is about term limits for school board members. Next, they discuss HB 265 regarding parental consent for abortion. Also, HB 341 which talks about the study of the Bible and Religion. These are very tough and controversial bills but what exactly are the details and how good a chance do they have of passing?

Follow These Bills

HJR 157

HB 265

HB 341

Rick welcomes Florida State Representative Bob Rommel to the podcast to talk about the Electoral College. There has been a discussion as of late to have a National Popular Vote to control the Presidential election. Is it a fair process? What would the founders think? They go into great detail about this debate and what Florida is doing to shore up election integrity on today's episode.

Learn more about Bob Rommel

Florida Citizens Alliance

From Archives.Gov:

"The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.

The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators. Read more about the allocation of electoral votes.

Under the 23rd Amendment of the Constitution, the District of Columbia is allocated 3 electors and treated like a state for purposes of the Electoral College. For this reason, in the following discussion, the word “state” also refers to the District of Columbia.

Each candidate running for President in your state has his or her own group of electors. The electors are generally chosen by the candidate’s political party, but state laws vary on how the electors are selected and what their responsibilities are. Read more about the qualifications of the Electors and restrictions on who the Electors may vote for.

The presidential election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. You help choose your state’s electors when you vote for President because when you vote for your candidate you are actually voting for your candidate’s electors."

It seems like many people talk about Standard Reform in our schools, but have a hard time understanding the details. Rick welcomes Ted Rebarber to the podcast. He is the CEO of AccountabilityWorks. They discuss how well-designed accountability and assessment systems are vital to raising student achievement and ensuring that all students receive the benefit of a high-quality education. What can standards reform really accomplish? What can we hope for with true reform? Learn how Common Core has truly affected our students and what we can do to remedy the situation on today's episode.

AccountabilityWorks

Theodor Rebarber, CEO
[email protected]

Theodor Rebarber is CEO and founder of AccountabilityWorks. Before that, he was co-founder and chief education officer of a charter school management company that achieved high test score gains with disadvantaged students. Previously, Rebarber developed and passed standards and charter schools legislation as a legislative director in Congress, managed test development at a system of privately-managed public schools, developed policy on standards-based reform at the U.S. Department of Education, and researched education policy at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies (VIPPS). 

This is a topic that Rick and Keith are incredibly passionate about. It's The Hope Scholarship. We all want the best learning experience for our children, but what if they are being harassed or bullied? More than 50,000 students are subject to what we call bullying! Beginning with the 2018-2019 school year, a student enrolled in a Florida public school in kindergarten through grade 12 who has been subjected to an incident of battery; harassment; hazing; bullying; kidnapping; physical attack; robbery; sexual offenses, harassment, assault, or battery; threat or intimidation; or fighting at school the opportunity to transfer to another public school with capacity or enroll in an approved private school under the Hope Scholarship. Find out what steps you need to take on today's episode.

The Hope Scholarship

Hector Manley sex abuse case, Collier schools' response angers parents

From the article:

Parents interviewed had little to no knowledge of the Manley case; a few had heard about it, and only from media coverage.

“It’s not right,” Raina Antonio-Jose said in Spanish as she walked her child home from school last spring. “They should have informed the parents so that we are aware of what is going on with our kids at the school.” 

Antonio-Jose heard about Manley’s arrest on a Facebook post linking to an article about him.

“The school did not tell me anything,” Antonio-Jose said.

Parents at Parkside Elementary School say they feel in the dark because of the lack of communication from the school district about a sexual abuse case.

Things are beginning to accelerate leading into the 2020 Legislative Session! Rick and Keith have 29 meetings in Tallahassee working for you! They talk about 5 important issues facing teachers and parents, including the Governors' teacher pay raise, The Hope Scholarship, Novel content in school media centers, the DOE listening tours, and the AIR assessment on Common Core. Find out more about these critical issues and how YOU can help FLCA today on today's episode!

Florida Standards Listening Tour

Florida Standards Review Info

The Hope Scholarship