ORLANDO, FLORIDA – Speakers spoke about a number of issues, including education policy, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which took place on February 24 through 27 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando, Florida.
On Thursday, Florida governor Ron DeSantis spoke at the conference on a number of issues, including education policy. While listing a number of policies that Florida pursued during the pandemic, DeSantis noted that, “We made sure that every kid in the State of Florida had an opportunity to go to school in person five days a week.” DeSantis also noted that “Florida leads the nation in school choice, and we have liberated hundreds of thousands of young kids who were living in poverty to get an education and make the most of life’s opportunities.”
DeSantis also noted his opposition to Critical Race Theory, saying that “because we will not spend taxpayer money to teach our kids to hate our country or to hate each other, we have banned CRT in K through 12 education, and instead we have the most robust civics education anywhere in the country. We’re going to have citizenship exams for graduating seniors.”
There were also attendees at the conference from a number of different organizations, including Jewish organizations. Several of them spoke to the Jewish Journal in response to questions about school choice and how it relates to the Jewish community.
In response to questions from the Jewish Journal, Nachman Mostofsky, Executive Director and VP of Amariah, which he described as “the only Jewish organization that pushes biblical values which align with the conservative movement in America,” said “we’re working with members of Congress, at least on the federal level. Most of the CRT stuff, people don’t understand, it’s on the state level. It’s the state houses where the stuff needs to be done. Congressionally, very little can actually be done, because the Department of Education doesn’t, I guess you can ban certain funding, but the states can still do it with their own funding, so it’s truly on the state level, and maybe even more local, with your local school boards where this stuff is gonna stop. National organizations, that’s not really the proper method for this.”
In response to a question about how school choice impacts the Jewish community, Mostofsky responded “to me, school choice is that the money should follow the child; it shouldn’t follow the teacher’s union.” “Money should follow the child into the school that they’re going to,” said Mostofsky. “And may the best school win. If the public school system wants to ramp up its education, then go for it,” said Mostofsky.
Bethany Mandel, editor of the children’s book company Heroes of Liberty, also had a lot to say about education policy. In response to questions from the Jewish Journal about issues facing public schools, Mandel said, “I think that the largest issues are of their own creation. The curriculum situation is such that there’s a focus on diversity and a sort of gender ideology instead of actual just education in math literacy and just literacy in general. And we’re seeing the results of that focus in test scores in math and in English and the focus has become indoctrination instead of education.”
In response to questions from the Jewish Journal about the advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling versus Jewish day schools, Mandel also discussed potential alternatives to the public school system. “For us, so we have five children, my oldest two are homeschooling this year, and I’ll have three homeschooling next year, there’s a lot of advantages. Financial is a huge one. What we would be paying in day school would have been an entire full-time salary for me plus some. And so instead of doing that I’m home with all of our kids and we have a much more relaxed and really wonderful family relationship between me and our children and our children with each other. And we have a lot of flexibility to learn in different ways and with different curriculums in ways that are much more personal for each child according to their needs and their interests and we’re able to do all that because we have the flexibility financially and also time wise,” said Mandel.
Mandel also noted that with regard to Jewish education “the biggest issue is just there’s not enough sort of creativity, and everyone sort of fits a mold, and I think that everyone sort of fits in a box in the Jewish world and everyone does the same things. Everyone goes to the same schools, goes to the same camps, and there is another way that is really fulfilling and really freeing and I think that we saw a few more people than usual in the Jewish community doing homeschooling because they didn’t like COVID school. But it is a partial solution to the day school crisis that has not really been considered because I think it’s a chicken or the egg situation. People don’t know homeschoolers and so they don’t know what homeschooling looks like. And I think if more people sort of had an idea of what homeschooling actually entails, they might be open to it because ultimately in most families in a two-income household, one of those incomes is paying for day school and it’s exhausting. It’s a full day and it’s a real hamster wheel that I’m glad that we’re not running on and I think that more people should consider getting off of.”
In response to a question about how school choice would impact that, Mandel stated that “it’s hard to know sort of what school choice would look like in reality and what that would mean for Jewish day schools. I think it would definitely take the stress off. But the day school model is really top heavy, and I’m not sure how much the financial sort of pressure would be taken off if there were more sort of government funding. I think it would definitely help.”
CPAC is an annual conference that has been held since 1974.
Zachary Leshin is a writer and former congressional staffer based in Orlando
