PENSACOLA, FLA. – In a political forum held last month in Escambia County, candidate for Florida House Alex Andrade, tried to turn the audience against one another over CRT. He hoped the larger half would side with him. The strategy by the unpolished politician failed miserably.
Andrade, a candidate with strong financial ties to energy corporations, tried to indict members of the Escambia and Santa Rosa County School boards banking on the audience not knowing the positions of the GOP school board members. Carollyn Taylor (D), also running for Florida House District 2, offered that even the Republican school board members that Andrade endorsed, acknowledged that CRT is not being taught in our public schools.
The dumbfounded look on Andrade’s face was priceless. Eventually he did admit that CRT is not being taught in the classrooms. But he knew that all along. His strategy to victory is through division. He needs to turn parents against teachers and school boards against principals because, for him, a campaign unifying cross-county coalitions is a losing strategy. His only path to power is to turn neighbors against each other in a divide and conquer scheme.
We Won’t Fall For It!
Whatever our color, background, or zip code, we want our children to have an education that imparts honesty about who we are, integrity in how we treat others, and the freedom to pursue our dreams. But for years lawmakers like Alex Andrade, have denied our classrooms vital resources while simultaneously demanding huge sacrifices of our teachers. He is now stoking fears about our schools, turning parents against teachers, and blocking kids from learning our shared stories of confronting the system to build a more perfect union. Andrade wants to censor the truth of our history and erase the leaders who changed our state for the better. By joining together and speaking up for our teachers, contacting our elected leaders, and voting to fully fund our schools, we can make Florida a state where every child has the freedom to learn, grow and thrive.