Florida Citizens Alliance has decided, “Enough is enough!”  We are now an active participate along with Collier parents in a lawsuit for an emergency injunction to restart the current “flawed” textbook adoption process. This lawsuit was filed today, May 31^st , 2017 in The Circuit Court for the 20^th Judicial Circuit in and for Collier County.

The Collier County School Board (CCPS) has violated Florida Sunshine Law and ignored at least four  Florida statutes, all at the expense of our 46,000 plus students who deserve the “highest quality .instructional materials of professionalism and historical accuracy”.  Quote: FS 1003.42

We strongly believe the School Board here in Collier County has violated Chapter 128, Florida’s sunshine law and at least four other Florida Statutes including FS 1003.42, FS 1006.28, FS 1006.31(2), and FS 1006.283.

As parents, grandparent and taxpaying community members, we demand that the Collier School Board pause the current process and start the adoption process over on June 1^st  for three overriding reasons: 1) The text book adoption process, that the prior board authorized and that has been used under  the current Board’s supervision, violates Florida Sunshine law (Chapter 286 of the Florida Statutes). 2) This process included hand-picked reviewers with an extreme political bias. Many of these reviewers do NOT represent Collier demographics and have turned this process into biased and political indoctrination. 3) The Social Studies materials Collier School Board members are considering to adopt are riddled with violations of several Florida laws including FS 1003.42, FS 1006.28, FS 1006.31(2), and FS 1006.283.

To approve both the process and any of the materials considered….we repeat any of these materials, the Collier School Board not only violates the School Boards legal/constitutional responsibility but also is fiducially a major waste of budget and taxpayer money.

THIS IS NOT A PARTISAN ISSUE. IT IS ABOUT OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE, following FLORIDA LAWS and adopting FACTUAL, UNBIASED TEXTBOOKS that are not used to indoctrinate our children. This is three year adoption process. There is no rush and the process can be corrected by following Florida laws.

Reluctantly, after numerous and varied interactions to get Collier School Board members to honor Florida Statutes, we have concluded that our only course of action is to seek an emergency injunction to stop this injustice to each and every student, parent and community member in Collier County.

According to Florida Statute, the Collier School Board is constitutionally responsible for the Instructional materials- NOT the Superintendent, NOT the FL Dept. of Education!

For more information, Contact Keith Flaugh at 239-250-3320.

ABOUT Florida Citizens

The Florida Citizens’ Alliance (FLCA) is a coalition of citizens and grassroots groups working together through education, outreach and community involvement to advance the ideals and principles of liberty.  We believe these include but are not limited to individual rights, free markets, and limited government.

America’s youth are in crisis. Raised by well-meaning but overprotective parents and coddled by well-meaning but misbegotten government programs, they are ill-equipped to survive in our highly-competitive global economy.

Many of the coming-of-age rituals that have defined the American experience since the Founding: learning the value of working with your hands, leaving home to start a family, becoming economically self-reliant–are being delayed or skipped altogether. The statistics are daunting: 30% of college students drop out after the first year, and only 4 in 10 graduate. One in three 18-to-34 year-olds live with their parents.

From these disparate phenomena: Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who as president of a Midwestern college observed the trials of this generation up close, sees an existential threat to the American way of life.

In The Vanishing American Adult, Sasse diagnoses the causes of a generation that can’t grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens. He identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue: hard work to appreciate the benefits of labor, travel to understand deprivation and want, the power of reading, the importance of nurturing your body–and explains how parents can encourage them.

Our democracy depends on responsible, contributing adults to function properly–without them America falls prey to populist demagogues. A call to arms, The Vanishing American Adult will ignite a much-needed debate about the link between the way we’re raising our children and the future of our country.

An Opinion Piece from Joe Doyle, MD

Despite being on the Florida Dept of Education’s recommended list, most of the textbooks proposed for adoption by the Collier County Public Schools Instructional Materials Review Committees contain bias and factual inaccuracies. Therefore, these textbooks do not comply with SB 864 and FS 1003.42 and should not be purchased with taxpayer dollars. We need to PAUSE this process. We need new committees that reflect the demographic cross-section of our Republican-majority community, and look for better textbooks for our children.  Please sign the online petition in the link below:   

https://www.change.org/p/stop-politicizing-textbooks?recruiter=419477042&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink