Commonwealth Policy Center

A bill proposed in the Florida House of Representatives would ban the display of LGBT Pride flags in public schools. The law would prevent any flag from a “racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint.” The bill’s sponsor, Rep. David Borrero (R-Sweetwater), said that “public classrooms should not be the place where our kids go to be radicalized and evangelized into accepting these partisan, radical ideologies.” Florida Democrats criticized the bill as “authoritarianism,” and a violation of free speech. But publicly-funded schools do not have the freedom to radicalize or marginalize students. The purpose of public schools isn’t political activism, but to transmit knowledge, equip kids to become productive members of society, and for character formation. And a majority of the Florida legislature is likely to agree with this.