Civics Education

A spokeswoman for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said now that Florida Education Commissioner Corcoran’s statement about Donofrio is out in the open, they need answers.  The SPLC statement continued, “According to Corcoran, a classroom that teaches Black Lives Matter or what Corcoran has labeled ‘crazy liberal stuff’ justifies censorship and the firing of …

Our state legislators passed SB 7045 without Senator Thurston’s logical reasonable amendment

This was copied from the May 2021 edition of the Freethinker Religious Miseducation at Public Expenseby Merrill Shapiro, Trustee and Immediate Past President, National Board of Trustees, Americans United for Separation of Church and State Our First Coast Freethought Society is an Internal Revenue Service Code Section 501 (c) 3 organization, so this column will not …

Proposed new standards for civics education in Florida

FFRF suggested comments for standards SS.7.C.1.12 (7th grade) and SS.912.C.1.5 (9th grade): “Judeo-Christian” is a contradiction in terms. Much of this benchmark is simply wrong. For instance, separation of powers is not a Judeo-Christian value, but came from Montesquieu. We know this because the Founders said so. The Ten Commandments did not influence our founding …

Has changing the names of schools named after confederate soldiers become a religious issue?

Some of the footage [from the public comments made at community meetings surrounding the debate around Robert E. Lee High School’s name change] went viral, including a portion from Joey Stevens — an alumnus who said Jesus didn’t oppose slavery. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/education/2021/03/25/evac-movement-teacher-removed-jacksonvilles-lee-high-after-refusing-remove-black-lives-matters-flag/6999517002/ The article at the link above is about Amy who was removed from a …