University of Central Florida researchers using genetic information say that, with intervention, depleted flamingo populations in Florida can recover. 

A study led by biology graduate student Jessica Folsom used genomic data in determining the flamingo population and its genetics in Florida and proposes strategies to restore the population. 

Researchers found that flamingos in Florida and around the Caribbean display few genetic differences, including those held in captivity. 

Flamingos in Florida often fly in for a few months, but building a long-term breeding population would pose a challenge. 

“For more than a century, there were almost no conservation measures for flamingos in the U.S.,” said Steven Whitfield, a co-author of the study and a director at the Audubon Nature Institute. “That’s partly because flamingos were long considered a non-native species to Florida. With our work, we want to show they have always belonged here and there’s a scientific basis to support their recovery.”

According to the research, the long-term outlook for flamingos is “good,” but the existing population is not sufficient for recovery. “Moreover, habitat destruction, pollution and warming temperatures add to the challenges they face.”

“Natural recovery of the flamingo is unlikely in Florida without intervention,” Whitfield said in a news release. “But our study shifts that conversation. We can now confidently say ex-situ [managed in zoos or aquariums] flamingos are genetically compatible with wild populations, which opens possibilities for a future release program, even though logistical hurdles remain.”

Reintroduction, although, must be guided by policy, the researchers said. 

Lawmakers, for at least five years, have proposed replacing the mockingbird with the flamingo as the state bird.

In advance of this coming session, SB 150, filed by Sen. Gayle Harrell, a Republican from Stuart, passed the Environment and Natural Resources committee unanimously last month and has two more committees dates.

HB 11, an identical bill filed in the House by Republican Reps. Jim Mooney from Islamorada and Chip LeMarca from Lighthouse Point, passed the Natural Resources & Disasters subcommittee last month and has two more committees to pass.

Those bills would designate the scrub-jay as the state songbird, too.

“The flamingo is iconic to Florida. When I was growing up it was flamingos and palm trees. … But the awareness really comes with the conservation. The flamingo is now thriving in Florida,” Mooney said during a December House committee meeting.

Extirpation

Hunting and habitat loss during the 1800s resulted in extirpation of Florida’s flamingos by the early 1900s. Since then, the bird has shown “only faint signs of a true comeback,” according to the research. 

“Despite high vagility and the presence of nearby flocks in the Caribbean, the Florida population has yet to show substantial recovery,” the report says. 

“The ex-situ [managed] population had higher diversity compared to wild birds and were not significantly differentiated from the wild population, making these flocks possible sources for reintroduction projects,” the study says.

Flamingo representation is common in Florida, being displayed, for example, on state lottery branding and a ginormous piece of art in the Tampa airport.

“As a native Floridian who grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, I was fascinated and a little surprised to see the flamingo as a prominent state icon, yet I had never seen one in the wild,” said Folsom, the researcher who led the study. 

Hoffman said that zoo flocks, including Zoo Miami’s, were founded after a Hialeah horse racetrack owner released about 20 flamingos in the wild in the 1920s to boost his business. 

Flamingos are protected by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service List of Birds Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 2023. That law makes it illegal to hunt, kill, sell, export, or transport any migratory bird without a permit from the federal government.

The study was published in the American Ornithological Society’s Ornithological Applications journal. 

According to a 2024 Audubon Florida report, “Our iconic American Flamingos blown in from Hurricane Idalia in 2023 continue to remain in Everglades National Park thanks to available forage and quality habitat—a bright pink indicator of the success of our Everglades conservation efforts.”

An Audubon survey found 101 wild American Flamingos in Florida in February 2024, nearly half in Florida Bay.

“Flamingos were historically numerous in Florida until the 19th century plume trade—when an ounce of feathers was worth more than gold—decimated wading birds in South Florida,” the Audubon report states.

“Even after legislation and Audubon wardens protected these birds, extensive draining and ditching of the Everglades destroyed their habitat. Now that restoration momentum is flowing in the River of Grass, we are hopeful that protected wetlands and improved water flow will create enough habitat resources for the Hurricane Idalia flamingos to survive and thrive here.”

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Florida Senate President Ben Albritton said Monday that he would prefer to wait to decide about a mid-decade congressional redistricting until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules in a Voting Rights Act case sometime next year.

That would contradict the timetable for congressional redistricting set last week by a select committee in the Florida House and put the upper chamber in synch with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said last week that he wants the Legislature to act during a special legislative session sometime after the regular session ends next year on March 13.

“What the governor has suggested is that we wait until the spring to redistrict,” Albritton said in a sit-down meeting with reporters who cover the Capitol. “He has his various reasons why we wait until the spring. I don’t have any issue with that. If you’ve seen anything out of the Senate, we move pretty slowly, anyhow. But our goal is just to be methodical and measured.”

DeSantis has said for months that he wants Florida to join a growing list of both red and blue states that have engaged in unprecedented mid-decade congressional redistricting ever since President Donald Trump called on Texas legislators to do so to help Republicans maintain their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democrats and voting rights advocates say Florida would be in violation of the Fair District Amendments passed by state voters in 2010 that insist no reapportionment plan or individual district can be drawn “with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.”

DeSantis has denied that is what would be taking place, saying last week that lawmakers are “not allowed to use partisan data” and that they would be “forced to” redistrict its 28 congressional seats once the Supreme Court rules on the case involving Louisiana’s congressional map.

House Speaker Daniel Perez announced in August that the House would convene the select committee to create a new congressional map in time for the 2026 elections. (That committee held its first meeting last week).

However, Albritton had not commented at all about where his chamber stood until last week, when he released a statement acknowledging the governor’s “desire” to redistrict the state’s congressional seats but that there was “no ongoing work” to that end in the Senate.

Disagreement with the House on timing

Albritton doubled down Monday, saying the Senate is not drawing any proposed maps right now and that he doesn’t see any need to do so until after the legal picture becomes clearer.

During arguments in the Louisiana case in October, justices seemed amenable to limiting the consideration of race in the redistricting process, a move that would undermine a key portion of the 1965 U.S. Voting Rights Act.

By agreeing with DeSantis, Albritton puts Senate at odds with the House on timing. The chairman of the House congressional redistricting committee said last week that it would be “irresponsible” to delay, specifically because the deadline for candidates to qualify for federal races next year is April 20.

Albritton bristled at the notion Monday that his chamber isn’t acting independently, just because it agrees with DeSantis and not the House on timing.

Proclaiming the Senate ‘an independent body’

“The Florida Senate has a very special role in all of this,” he said. “And that role is we are an independent body the same way the Florida House is and the same way that the executive office of the governor is. The same way that the courts are. If we happen to agree with the governor on something, it doesn’t mean anything other than, ‘Well, we happen to agree.’

“If we disagree with the governor on something, no, I’m not going to make a spectacle of it. But the fact is that we do on things disagree. And that’s the way the system’s supposed to work. So, I just push back on the notion that just because, you know, we happen to agree with waiting on redistricting because it makes sense to me in my mind to wait and garner all the information we can on it, sure.”

Asked what he would do if the House passes a congressional map during the regular session and then sends it to the Senate, Albritton was noncommittal.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said.

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Florida Democrats have housing affordability and government efficiency on their minds a month out from the start of the 2026 legislative session.

“What we have seen is that we have a lame duck governor and I think that the Legislature has taken back some of its co-equal power as a branch of government,” Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, of Boca Raton, said during a news conference in the Capitol Monday. “And I’m hopeful that as this session goes on, we in the House and the Senate in both parties are able to work together and do things that really do affect affordability and that affect peoples’ lives.”

Berman called affordability her caucus’ top priority this session. With a Republican super-majority, Democrats can’t pass legislation on their own.

“Prices are rising, period. And we are seeing Republican politicians pander to D.C. and squabble amongst themselves instead of fixing the problem, so Democrats are offering ideas,” House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell, of Tampa, said.

The leaders laid out three bills as their priorities this session.

HB 319/SB 366 would create a property insurance compact between at least 14 states, forming a risk pool for coverage. Rep. Kelly Skidmore, a Democrat from Boca Raton and the House bill’s sponsor, compared it to the National Flood Insurance Program. 

“Families are struggling, some can’t afford the cost of home ownership anymore. If we don’t tackle the risk that is driving this crisis, we will threaten that home ownership, economic growth, and the stability of our entire insurance system,” Skidmore said. 

The other housing-focused bill is HB 675/SB 756. the Housing Options Made For Everyone (HOME) Act would eliminate documentary stamp taxes for certain first-time homebuyers and build off the Live Local Act from 2023, a more-than-$700 million bipartisan measure building more workforce housing. 

“By easing just one of the up-front costs, we’re giving people a fair shot at buying their first home and starting the next chapter of their lives,” Sen. Tracie Davis, a Democrat from Jacksonville and the Senate version’s sponsor, said.

SB 780 is the caucus’ third focus, which it says will “refocus Florida’s government” by identifying “wasteful spending.”

The bill specifically asks for investigations into high-profile items including the Everglades immigrant detention facility also known as “Alligator Alcatraz”; per student spending at New College of Florida; state spending on campaigns against proposed constitutional amendments legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding abortion access; and Hope Florida.

The bill calls for the Auditor General, Government Efficiency Task Force, and the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to “prepare a report identifying fraud, waste, abuse of authority, malfeasance, mismanagement, and misconduct in state government.”

The bill calls for the attorney general to pursue legal remedies if the report finds wrongdoing. Attorney General James Uthmeier was appointed by DeSantis to that position and previously worked in the governor’s office.

Notably, Democrats do not include eliminating property taxes in their agenda. Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, are focusing heavily on crafting ballot language to eliminate or limit property taxes for homesteaded properties.

“What we feel is that people aren’t complaining about the property taxes, they’re complaining about the property insurance and about being able to afford things here in this state,” Berman said. “Property taxes are going to have a direct impact on the services people receive and we don’t want people to have less services here in this state.”

The session begins Jan. 13.

“Despite the president calling it a hoax, we all see with our own eyes that the affordability crisis is real, it’s hurting Floridians, and yes, it is getting worse,” Berman said. 

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A private school in Brooksville should be barred from access to state school vouchers after its operator admitted it wasn’t educating students the state paid it to teach, an administrative judge recommended Wednesday.

The episode follows release of a state audit into a state budget strain caused by what lawmakers agree are lax accounting practices in the school choice program.

Little Wings of Prayer, a daycare and private school in Hernando County since 2018, is the subject of an investigation opened in 2024 into a mass transfer of students (and their state-funded scholarships) from a separate school two hours away, according to administrative law Judge Robert Telfer III.

“It would be difficult for the undersigned to discern a more obvious and brazen fraudulent scheme than the one undertaken by [Little Wings of Prayer operator] Ms. [Crystal] Harris. This violation, in and of itself, is sufficient to revoke the eligibility of Little Wings to receive scholarship funds,” Telfer wrote in his recommendation to strip the school’s scholarship qualification. 

According to the decision, during the 2023-2024 school year, Little Wings submitted invoices to Step Up for Students, an organization administering state vouchers, for students previously enrolled at Touched by an Angel school, 130 miles away in Lake City.

The transfer of about 80 students raised a concern to Step Up, which tipped off investigators.

The Department of Education under then-Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. alleged fraud.

Harris told the judge that about 80 students previously enrolled at the Lake City school enrolled in her school because the Lake City school owner was in bankruptcy and her school was at risk of closing.

Harris testified that during the 2023-2024 school year, her school received state scholarship funds for students that did not physically attend the school and that she did not know it was illegal to do so. Additionally, Harris said she “never took the time out go down there and verify” the Lake City school was in operation.

According to court documents, Harris said she received about 30% of scholarship funds for the Lake City students. After sending those funds to Lake City, she in return received about $70,000 from the Lake City school “that should take care of the taxes for her money, and for audit and all those things.”

The state additionally suggested that Little Wings students were also enrolled in the Columbia County School District, but that evidence was redacted.

The recommendation from the judge leaves the decision about how to proceed up to the Department of Education.

Court documents do not specify the value of the scholarships in question.

The complaint filed by the department includes that Harris has previously pleaded no contest to child abuse charges. The state attempted to use that information to disqualify her from working at a private school. Ultimately, evidence on that front was deemed “inconclusive.”

The Department of Education alleged, too, that Little Wings did not maintain or submit fire safety and health inspections and failed to notify the state of a change in its physical location within 15 days after moving.

Lawmakers working on it

State legislators last week reviewed a state audit that found the school choice scholarship program in Florida exhibited “a myriad of accountability problems.”

The 22-page audit found that in 2024-2025, the Department of Education paid $655 million to middleman scholarship funding organizations, as statutes prescribe, before school started.

“Any improper payments, any ineligible amounts, you’re paying and chasing those amounts, because the dollar’s already gone out the door,” the auditor said.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, said that at any given moment the state does not know where 30,000 students are in terms of school categories — traditional public or voucher-supported private or home schools — together worth $270 million in education support.

Gaetz is sponsor of a lengthy bill that looks to address some of the accounting problems in the voucher program, which became universally accessible in 2023.

Gaetz’s bill would require the Department of Education to investigate written complaints from parents, students, and schools regarding school choice laws and investigate fradulent activity and overpayment, and refer them to the Department of Financial Services for potential criminal investigation.

Private schools that do not properly attest that a child attends could be investigated for fraud and would have to repay the money, according to the bill.

However, the House does not seem to be fully on board with the Senate proposal. The legislative session begins in January.

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The state’s school voucher program has exhibited “a myriad of accountability problems” and caused a funding shortfall for public schools, a state audit released this week shows.

The audit, encompassing the 2024-2025 school year, was presented this week to lawmakers, who are spending the weeks leading up to the legislative session learning the woes of the universal school voucher system in which, contrary to how it was marketed, “funding did not follow the child.”

Matthew Tracy, deputy auditor general for the state, presented the 22-page audit to each legislative education budget committee Thursday. Tracy’s team recommended the Legislature change the timing of scholarship application windows and provide more financial support to avoid funding shortfalls.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, said that at any given moment the state does not know where 30,000 students are in terms of school categories — traditional public or voucher-supported private or home schools — together worth $270 million in education support.

Gaetz spearheaded an unsuccessful bill last year, SB 7030, to change various parts of the voucher system. 

In 2024-2025, the department paid $655 million to middleman scholarship funding organizations, as statutes prescribe, before school started. That’s part of the questioned accounting practices. 

“Any improper payments, any ineligible amounts, you’re paying and chasing those amounts, because the dollar’s already gone out the door,” Tracy said. 

Last month, the House held committee meetings during which members asked scholarship funding organizations and the department about miscalculations and processes. Those meetings provided initial numbers of how many students were double-counted or lost in fuzzy accounting. For example, the state’s largest scholarship funding organization sent at least $7 million to families before verifying whether their students were attending a private school or homeschooling.

Earlier this month, legislators approved a $47 million budget amendment to make up for traditional public schools shortchanged by the accounting inaccuracies at the end of the previous fiscal year, even after tapping into $118 million from the education stabilization fund, through which the Legislature can cover voucher-related budget overruns. In the meantime, some districts were caught off guard after education funding from the state ran dry. 

Foreseeable for some

Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said the audit showed “a lot of concerning information.” 

“I wouldn’t say wholly unforeseeable, given the rapid expansion of the program in the last couple years — which has been a point of concern that I’ve had for many years here — is how are we going to make sure that we track students, have budget accountability, have budget predictability,” Bradley said. 

In the past four years, the voucher program has grown rapidly, serving about 500,000 students during the past school year. In 2021-2022, the program had served about 200,000 students. In 2024-2025, the program dished out $3.17 billion in Family Empowerment Scholarship vouchers and recorded another $804.5 million in scholarship programs funded through corporate tax credits, totaling nearly $4 billion dollars.  

In some respects, the state went “beyond” state law, but also missed “various opportunities … to further accountability over the use of State education funds and timelier and more effectively identify and halt duplicate payments and recoup ineligible amounts.”

“I’m disgusted; this is another, in eight years I’ve been here, ‘I told you so,’ and they’re just getting more and more expensive,” Sen. Jason Pizzo, NPA-Sunny Isles Beach, said. 

The audit found that as of June 30, the end of the last fiscal year, $36 million sat in scholarship accounts unspent as did more than $367 million in scholarship accounts for students with disabilities.

At the end of the 2024-25 school year, nearly 300 accounts for students with disabilities held “excess balances,” or more than $50,000 each in unspent money. The sum of the excess alone was $2.3 million. 

Pizzo focused on “float,” the lost value of interest that could be collected on money that is not in state hands when it could or should be. 

“Certainly, you could never close out books for a company or an organization the way this is,” Pizzo said, adding that “a bunch of [Department of Education] bureaucrats just don’t understand finance. This is so bad.”

Tracy said it “was not evident that the department had sufficient staff resources to perform its critical duties.”

“I think that this is a cautionary tale to what can happen if you don’t phase things in and you don’t take the appropriate and adequate amount of time with something as transformational as this program truly was,” Senate Appropriations Committee on Pre-K-12 Education Chair Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, said.

The Department of Education said it has addressed concerns raised in the audit that directly implicate the department.

“We’re trusted with these dollars, and we kept using, ‘Does the department have the authority, the authority, the authority.’ I’m left myself asking, ‘Does the department have the ability to actually reconcile these issues?’” Pizzo said. 

Separate silo

Gaetz said he will introduce a bill in the coming days to address these concerns. 

His bill, to be co-introduced by Burgess and Committee on Education Pre-K-12 Chair Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, would separate the school choice scholarships from the Florida Education Finance Program (FEPF), the mechanism that funds traditional public schools, and would expand the education stabilization fund.

The auditor’s report recommended separating scholarship payments from the FEFP, making it a separate “silo” in the budget.

“The auditor general said in his meeting with the chair and myself that whatever can go wrong with this system has gone wrong,” Gaetz said. 

The bill would establish monthly payments to families and schools and provide student IDs to private school students, too, a focus of House committee hearings last month. 

“We do not have a perfect bill to introduce, but we have a bill which fixes these issues, which, left unaddressed, will continue to worsen and threaten to disrupt and imperil school choice in Florida,” Gaetz said. 

There seems to already be a difference in House and Senate approaches.

House PreK-12 Budget Subcommittee Chair Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, said moving scholarship funding outside of the FEFP “would be a huge mistake and that would end universal school choice in the state of Florida.”

Persons-Mulicka said the problem is not the funding model, but instead the implementation of the program. 

“If you change the funding model, create a new funding model, who’s to say there still won’t be implementation problems?” Persons-Mulicka said. 

Included in the audit is the Department of Education’s response, which agreed with separating the the school choice programs from the FEFP.

“The Department acknowledges that, while the popularity and growth of the scholarship programs evidence their value and need, the administrative systems supporting these programs must keep pace with their implementation,” Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas wrote.

Gaetz said the program must be “partially reengineered.”

“We can’t just rearrange the deck chairs, we have to make sure that we change course in the ways that the auditor general has recommended,” Gaetz said.

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The state’s first public school chaplain twice ran for Congress, wrote an ode to Charlie Kirk, and preached the need to “battle alongside Trump.”

He identifies with the Black Robe Regiment, a coalition of pastors committed to tearing down the wall of separation between church and state.

Still, the Rev. Jack Martin insists politics won’t interfere with his volunteer school service.

Living in Hernando County since 1997, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2016 and in 2022. In the 2022 Republican primary, Martin came in second to U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, earning 9.2% of the vote.

Martin remains politically active, particularly through his Facebook and Rumble accounts, posting an array of social media videos supporting Republicans and criticizing Democrats. Among his posts:

• An ode to Charlie Kirk.
• A video criticizing U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for the government shutdown, calling him “Uncle Chuckles.”
• An image boosting “Pastors for Trump.”
• A photo calling for former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to be deputized so he can arrest former President Barack Obama.
• A video advocating for ivermectin to treat COVID-19, which Martin says saved his life after catching COVID.

“If we want our country back, we can’t stand as spectators applauding Donald Trump.  We need to take our armor, get out there in the battle alongside of Donald Trump,” Martin said during an appearance before the Lake County Florida Republican Assembly.

Martin told the Phoenix that “without apology there are things he [Trump] does I don’t like, too,” and that his support for Trump is “in areas that are restoring our country to be a more sound republic.”

Still, Martin insists his motivation to serve as a chaplain is “not anything political, it’s not to proselytize, it’s to help kids.”

Registered as clergy under the Christian Life Assembly of God church, the Rev. Martin is listed as a chaplain on the Hernando County Schools’ website, meaning he is qualified to “provide support, services, and programs” to students who seek it out.

A 2024 law, HB 931, that permits volunteer chaplains drew backlash from some faith leaders for the possibility it would lead to religious proselytization of students, “undermine the secular nature of public education,” and violate the Establishment Clause, the part of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits government establishment or preference of a religion, the Phoenix has reported.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking the district to backtrack and not only take away Martin’s permission to serve as a chaplain but to eliminate the entire program, which is voluntary for students.

“Rev. Martin has openly promoted Christian nationalism and disparaged public education itself. His stated views are incompatible with the religious neutrality required of public schools and threaten to undermine the trust and inclusivity essential to serving Hernando County’s diverse student body,” the foundation wrote in its letter to Hernando officials.

The foundation advocated for access for students to “trained professionals such as school counselors, psychologists, and social workers — not clergy advancing religious or political agendas.”

“Please understand that permitting a religious chaplaincy in a public school district jeopardizes the rights of students and parents and invites legal challenge,” the organization’s legal counsel, Christopher Line, concluded in his letter.

Constitutional concerns

The retired Pentecostal pastor told the Phoenix in a phone interview this week he does not share constitutional concerns about the program. He’s “100% sure before the Supreme Court that it would be proven pure and good.”

As chaplain, Martin said, he will try to be “one more layer in a system that’s trying to help our kids get through school and graduate as healthy as they can.”

A father of six homeschooled children, Martin served as chaplain for Spring Hill Fire and Hernando County Fire for 17 years. That experience, he said, has prepared him to work with students.

If a tragedy such as a school shooting were to happen, “I would be the most trained — even out of their counselors — I would be the most trained to be able to go in and immediately start to help,” Martin told the Phoenix.

Citing his outspokenness about Jan. 6, 2021, and his commitment to the Black Robe Regiment, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has called Martin a Christian nationalist.

His response: “I am a Christian who loves the United States of America, the nation that God has allowed me to be born and live in. And I respect the laws of the land. And I respect the word of God. And I attempt, the best I can, to live in a manner that would be the life the way Jesus would have done it.”

Martin does identify as a Black Robe Regiment pastor. The national organization with that name bills itself as a “modern-day network of patriotic pastors and religious leaders striving to safeguard liberty by helping clergy and community leaders step into their God-given duty of leading from the pulpit, in the community, and in government.”

A 2022 Vice report cited by the Freedom From Religion Foundation asserts the Black Robe Regiment does fall within the rubric of Christian nationalism, having ties to Gen. Flynn, who in his Reawakening America tours has argued “the church should be at the heart of all aspects of American society.”

Martin says the Vice story is inaccurate. “I mean the Black Robe Regiment is a term, it’s not one group of people,” he said.

Last month, Martin posted on the Black Robe Regiment Facebook group, of which he’s an administrator, “I say this in humility but mark down that the first Public School Chaplain in the State of Florida is a Black Robe Regiment pastor.”

Martin insists the topics he’s been outspoken about would not be part of his offerings as a chaplain.

“In the past, at school board meetings, I’ve spoken on vaccines, on mandatory masking, and things like that. But those were as a citizen and those were prior to any chaplaincy program existing. But they would not be something that would be talked about,” Martin said.

In an appearance before the Lake County Florida Republican Assembly in August, Martin said he could help combat bullying in schools and calm kids after any bomb or gun scares.

Martin said he was invited to speak to the organization, which declares “everything else will fall into proper place by reforming the Republican Party with Judeo-Christian conservative constitutionalists with the Courage to do what’s right.”

“I hear a lot of pastors say, ‘We’ve fixed the problem, we’ve got Christian schools.’ My only problem with that is, what about all the kids that are still in public school and who are still being forced to believe stuff they shouldn’t?” Martin told the Assembly.

The Rev. Martin has amplified right-wing talking points blaming transgender people for political violence. The day after a shooter opened fire at a Catholic school in Minnesota, Martin told the Lake County Florida Republican Assembly that, “if long before that, somebody had sat down and helped those young people, they would have got the help they need.”

In addressing gender-confirming care, Martin told the Phoenix, “My personal view — and, again, I could not use this one in the school, obviously — but my personal view is that you’re hurting kids. It would be like telling the anorexic if you eat more it will get better, you’re just hurting them. And I think my whole heart in trying to be a chaplain is to help kids, not to hurt them and not to create a bigger problem than already exists.”

Martin has a Rumble channel called “THE HARD RIGHT SAVING AMERICA” and publishes songs he’s written. One title is “The Ballad of J6ers,” a “tribute” to participants in the events that transpired in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, which he called “no insurrection. It was a 1A protest by citizens.”

“I am a man who loves my country, I was in D.C. that day along with my good buddies believing free speech worked that way,” Martin wrote in his  lyrics, although he stresses he wasn’t there.

There’s an accompanying video featuring clips of  the insurrection and an artificial intelligence-generated image of Obama being handcuffed by FBI agents in the Oval Office as Trump watches.

“And maybe justice will be served and the bad folks are put in jail,” the song continues.

Martin told the Phoenix the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s criticism is incorrect.

“They referred to a song that I had written and I used the quote the president [Trump] used. I want them to go be peaceful protests, and they tried to make it as if I said that was a peaceful protest. I have my own view on that day,” Martin said — going on to allege that more than 270 Deep State “insiders” were among protesters. “I have questions that there was at least some shenanigans with that day.”

Xs and Os

The Hernando County School Board approved language implementing the state’s first public school chaplain the program earlier this year, making it the first district to welcome the volunteer religious figures.

“Pastor Jack, I want to say that I appreciate everything that you have done in leading this chaplain program. I have worked with you hand-in-hand, day-after-day, week-after-week, we’ve had a few months at this, and it’s been some long, hard discussions,” Hernando School Board Chair Shannon Rodriguez said during a school board meeting last month. “I’m honored to come alongside of you.”

The district’s policies outline that chaplains:

• May provide religious or spiritual guidance to students, lead students in prayer, and offer reflective, non-judgmental listening to students who are going through a difficult time.
• May not seek to persuade or force any student to participate.
• May not proselytize for or disparage any religion, belief, lack of belief, or faith group
• Provision of care, help or counsel is not proselytization or disparagement.

The district, which operates more than 20 schools, requires chaplains to obtain “an ecclesiastical endorsement from their faith group” to certify they are indeed a leader in the faith, “qualified spiritually, morally, intellectually, and emotionally to serve as a chaplain for the board,” and “sensitive to religious pluralism and able to provide for the free exercise of religion by all students.” 

The policy prescribes that “the selection of a chaplain should reflect the expectations of the local community.”

The program has officially started, although Martin said his counsel has not yet been called upon. 

The policies require interested parents to opt in and provide Martin protections from lawsuits. 

The law requires interested school chaplains to first pass a Level 2 background check, “a state and national fingerprint-based check and consideration of disqualifying offenses and applies to those employees designated by law as holding positions of responsibility or trust.”

After passing the background check, a chaplain wishing to provide services must schedule a consultation with a school principal and interested parents to earn signatures from both parties.

“I would like to look at this three years down the road and see the value of what’s come out of the program, and be able to look back and say, ‘See, this is why I thought it was effective,’” Martin said. 

After the Phoenix’s interview with Martin, a second chaplain was added to the district website, Shawn May, registered with Great Life Church, a non-denominational church in Spring Hill.

Although groups have raised criticisms and threatened legal action, Martin said he hopes Hernando’s program “can prove to be effective to the good of the school and the students in a way that, if other counties wanted to try it, they would model a program.

“The school board has done an incredible job of implementing a program that limits what I can do and that’s fine with me,” he added. 

Last year, pastors opposed to chaplains entering schools told the Phoenix they disagreed with its “scout’s honor” system to not proselytize.

Following the passage of the chaplain law, the Satanic Temple told the Florida Gannett newspapers that it intends to take advantage of the law, the Phoenix reported last year. They since have complained that the state’s model policy for districts to carry out the law was too narrow.

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The top student debaters in the state will hoist a trophy named for the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas announced Friday that the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative championship trophy will be named for Kirk, who gained notoriety for debating students on college campuses before he was assassinated last month during one of those events in Utah.

“The tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk underscores the importance of civic dialogue rooted in respect and understanding. Mr. Kirk’s example as a champion of open civic discourse reminds us that disagreement can and must remain peaceful, principled and constructive,” Kamoutsas said in a letter to district superintendents.

The civics and debate program began in 2020 with 59 teams across 11 school districts at that that time.

Today there are 330 times in all 67 counties.

The competitions include declamation, dramatic performance, extemporaneous debate, impromptu speaking, informative speaking, legislative debate, and public forum debate.

There are 30 tournaments in the state each year “focusing on developing civic dispositions and reinforcing what is taught in the classroom,” Kamoutsas said.

The championship is held at New College of Florida in Sarsasota, which announced last month it would commission a statute of Kirk on its campus.

The Florida civics and debate initiative was launched while New College President Richard Corcoran was serving as the state education commissioner.

“New College of Florida is honored to host the FDCI Championship next April. Can’t wait to see you all there!” the campus’ X account replied to Kamoutsas’ announcement.

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Both the Florida Department of Education and PEN America, a nonprofit advocating for freedom of expression, have released their annual lists of books removed from school classrooms and libraries, each reporting fewer removals than last year.

The Florida Department of Education reported that 444 titles were removed in some capacity across 16 counties in the state during the 2024-25 school year, down from 732 titles removed the school year before. In 2022-23, the state reported 386 removed titles.

In this, PEN’s fourth year of reporting, Florida ranked highest in the nation with 2,304 bans statewide of the 6,870 reported nationwide. Florida was responsible for 4,500 of the more than 10,000 books PEN reported the previous school year. 

The state reports books as removed when material has been discontinued in response to a parent or resident of the county and the data are reported by school districts.

PEN America’s dataset comprises school book bans reported to the organization and those covered in news media. The organizations cautions that its dataset is not comprehensive —  “there are likely additional school book bans that have not been reported.” It’s sum includes books that have been shelved pending review and those removed in response to direct or threatened action by government officials.

“Over the past four years, a misleading campaign to ‘protect children’ alongside advocacy for ‘parental rights’ has been weaponized to diminish students’ First Amendment rights in schools, sow distrust in librarians and educators, and diminish the ability of authors and illustrators to connect with their intended audiences,” PEN wrote in a news release.

The PEN database includes about 600 titles in Hillsborough County that are “banned pending investigation.”

The DOE list does not disclose any titles in Hillsborough County, for example, that have been removed.

The PEN list includes 500 materials in Union County “banned” in June 2025, although the DOE list does not include any titles removed in that county during the previous school year. 

Volusia County, in the PEN report, saw about 180 titles “banned pending investigation” and, per the DOE methodology, one title was removed during the previous school year, “The Kite Runner.”

The bulk of the state’s reported removals were in Clay County. PEN puts about 400 titles in jeopardy there, while the state lists about 280 removed titles in Clay County. 

Climate

In August, PEN America celebrated a recent lawsuit by book authors and publishers challenging the state’s law removing books from classrooms and libraries. A federal trial judge ruled that the state’s law banning books deemed “pornographic” from school libraries is, in part, “overbroad and unconstitutional.”

“It is important to recognize that books available in schools, whether in a school or classroom library or as part of a curriculum, were selected by librarians and educators as part of the educational offerings to students,” PEN America wrote. “Book bans occur when those choices are overridden by school boards, administrators, teachers, or even politicians on the basis of a particular book’s content.”

PEN America credits Florida’s rate of removals to “the passage of multiple vague laws, direct pressure from local groups and elected officials, and threats to educators’ professional licenses if they fail to comply.”

Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas, for example, has taken to social media to threaten Hillsborough County Superintendent Van Ayres over books available in that county’s catalog.

According to PEN, the most frequently banned book nationwide is “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess with 23 instances. The next-most banned book is “Sold” by Patricia McCormick with 20. 

Nationwide, Stephen King is the most-banned author, followed by Ellen Hopkins, Stah J. Maas, Jodi Picoult, and Yusei Matsui. 

Lawmakers in 2024 acknowledged book challenges may’ve been out of control, calling abundant challenges by a small number of objectors “frivolous” when they passed a law limiting objections from non-parents to one per month. This school year was the first year that law was in effect.

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Moez Limayem, the University of North Florida’s president, is the sole finalist for the same job at the University of South Florida, the Tampa Bay-area university announced Tuesday. 

USF introduced him as “an accomplished, energetic and passionate higher education leader with deep ties to USF and the Tampa Bay region.”

Ties, indeed; before becoming UNF’s president in 2022, he was dean of USF’s business college for 10 years.

“The University of South Florida and the Tampa Bay region are special to my family and me,” Limayem said in a news release. “I have always enjoyed working with USF faculty, staff, students, alumni, supporters and the community’s business leaders and I am honored to be considered to lead this great university in its continued pursuit of excellence.”

Community forums regarding Limayem’s potential presidency are yet to be scheduled. Following forums, USF trustees must vote on Limayem. If approved, final confirmation is in the hands of the Florida Board of Governors. 

USF started searching for a new president in February after Rhea Law announced she would step down at the conclusion of a presidential search. 

Law, an attorney and former chair of the school’s board of trustees, started as interim president in 2021 before officially becoming president in 2022. Former governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist appointed Law to the board from 2001 until 2013, overlapping with Limayem at USF at the beginning and end of his stint as dean. 

“We conducted a thorough process that included reviewing an outstanding group of highly qualified candidates from across the nation before deciding that Moez is the best choice for our USF community,” Mike Griffin, chair of the USF search committee, said in a news release. Griffin, a Tampa real estate figure, is vice chair of the trustees. 

“He brings a strong track record of presidential success in Florida in his current role, and we experienced the impact of his leadership firsthand when he led our Muma College of Business,” Griffin continued. “We are confident that Moez is the right person to accelerate our momentum and lead us to even greater heights in the next chapter of our university.”

Limayem became UNF’s president in August 2022. USF touted his presidency at UNF, marked by record enrollment this year. 

He received a master’s of business administration and doctorate degree in information systems from the University of Minnesota in 1988 and 1992, respectively. 

Before his first stint as USF, Limayem was an associate dean at the University of Arkansas College of Business. 

USF keeps with a trend of announcing sole finalists for a president’s position despite regulations requiring “an unranked list of final applicants.” Florida International University and the University of Florida, twice, did the same.

“The search committee is required to submit more than two qualified applicants, selected by a majority vote of the search committee, to the board of trustees for consideration, other than in exceptional circumstances making fulfillment of this requirement infeasible, in which case the committee must discuss why fewer than three applicants are being recommended and whether additional applications should be considered,” Board of Governors regulations state.

If Limayem is confirmed, USF will have swerved a trend of selecting presidents with histories of political service — unlike FIU, Florida Atlantic University, New College of Florida, Florida A&M University, and at the University of West Florida (an interim president). 

Now, UNF will become the latest state institution to begin a search for a new president.

Florida House Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa) celebrated the announcement on social media.

“Great news from the USF Presidential Search Committee! I’m excited about this recent update and wish Moez all the best throughout the selection process,” she posted on X.

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State government is investigating teachers over social media comments made following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Faculty and classroom teacher union leaders are calling it an attack on freedom of speech.

Last week, Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas wrote a letter to school superintendents statewide, reminding them that he has the power to discipline educators and sanction their certificates for probable cause, including “personal conduct that seriously reduces that person’s effectiveness as an employee of the district school board.”

The Florida Department of Education vowed last week to “hold teachers who choose to make disgusting comments about the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk accountable. Govern yourselves accordingly.”

Reports have surfaced from around the state of teachers under investigation for making what Kamoutsas called “despicable comments” about Kirk.

“These few are not a reflection of the great, high-quality teachers who make up the vast majority of Florida’s educators. Nevertheless, I will be conducting an investigation of every educator who engages in this vile, sanctionable behavior,” Kamoutsas said in the letter.

The statute permits the Education Practices Commission to suspend a teacher’s license if they are sanctioned or found guilty of personal conduct as described above by Kamoutsas. The law also permits the commissioner to suspend employees from positions interacting with students upon allegation of misconduct that affects the health, safety, or welfare of a student.

A Martin County teacher, who is also a Martin County Education Association official, has been removed from the classroom and placed in a job in the district office pending investigation for posting online about Kirk, calling him a “racist, misogynistic, fear-mongering neo-Nazi,” WPTV News reported Saturday.

Osceola County is investigating four teachers over social media comments, the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday. According to the Sentinel, a teacher in Kissimmee posted, “protect ur rights brother!!!! so proud of you taking this one for the team,” accompanying a Kirk quote declaring that “some” gun deaths were worth it to maintain gun rights.

News4Jax reported that a Clay County school employee was suspended after posting, “This may not be the obituary. [sic] We were all hoping to wake up to, but this is a close second for me.”

Some Lee County teachers will be subject to Kamoutsas’ discipline, Gulf Coast News reported Friday. Teachers at more than one school in that county posted social media comments that grabbed public attention. The school district emphasized their right to due process and is asking for Kamoutsas’ direction, the TV station reported.

“I certainly think there was a completely different way he could have sent that message without it sounding like he was trying to attack and threaten teachers in our public schools,” Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar told the Phoenix of Kamoutsas. 

Kamoutsas, in the letter, acknowledged First Amendment rights for teachers but said, “these rights do not extend without limit into their professional duties.”

“An educator’s personal views that are made public may undermine the trust of the students and families that they serve,” Kamoutsas wrote. 

Florida House Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole) posted to social media a letter he’s sent to Pinellas County Superintendent Kevin Hendrick, calling on him to fire teachers who have conducted “abhorrent” behavior on their social media accounts since Kirk’s death. He cited one instructor who he said posted “good riddance” after Kirk was shot.

The Florida Department of Education on Monday told the Phoenix, which was attempting to gauge the scope of the crackdown, that it “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a pending investigation.” Press Secretary Nathalia Medina added that Kamoutsas “intends to conduct an investigation of every educator who engages in misconduct and posts vile inappropriate messages about this current situation.”

“For the commissioner to say there’s no longer a second-chance mentality in education and that he’s going to personally investigate and essentially be the investigator, the prosecutor, and the judge and jury in all of these cases is quite concerning,” Spar said. 

The commissioner’s letter sends a “chilling effect throughout the profession,” Spar said.

“We cannot have a McCarthy-style commissioner or Department of Education. We need to deal with issues if they come up, yes, but we also need to support all who work in our schools and be reasonable in how we approach this,” Spar said. 

Spar’s reference was to the period in the 1950s when U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy investigated, widely in the public eye, often inflated allegations of communist infiltration.

Higher education

Monday, State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues sent a letter to university presidents.

“[W]hile the right to free expression is paramount it is not absolute. Celebrating or excusing campus violence — and in this case, the murder of Charlie Kirk — by members of our university system will not be tolerated. Such behavior is abhorrent, has the deleterious effects of breeding further violence and undermines efforts to promote civil discourse,” Rodrigues wrote.

Rodrigues asked presidents to review policies and procedures for students and employees relating to social media postings “and ensure such measures are deliberately enforced.”

Also in his letter, Rodrigues pointed out earlier actions related to expression, including the 2018 Campus Free Expression Act and the university system’s Statement of Free Expression. Rodrigues pointed to the system’s annual survey of free speech and a requirement for universities to have an Office of Public Policy Events for hosting debates, too.

Rodrigues said Kirk “modeled what Florida has long promoted: free expression, civil discourse and debate.”

Florida Atlantic University President Adam Hasner, a former Florida legislator and GOP majority leader, said on social media that a tenured professor made “repeated comments on social media” regarding Kirk’s assassination. 

Her comments reportedly included that Kirk was “racist, transphobic, homophobic and more.”

“It is our expectation that all employees consistently pursue the university’s mission and values to promote higher education, cultivate academic excellence, and support the personal growth of our students,” Hasner said. 

The professor was placed on administrative leave, Hasner said. The school’s focus, he continued, is to “promote civil discourse, conduct healthy debate and treat one another with respect. This applies to all students, faculty and staff no matter their political leanings.”

Robert Cassanello, president of United Faculty of Florida, the union representing professors in the state, told the Phoenix that conservatives have tried to “sell to the American public that colleges and universities are hostile to speech, hostile to conservative speech.”

“And if you take these ideas seriously, what they’re saying is, ‘We agree to speech when the speech is conservative and we want to make sure that speech flows freely but, when the speech is not conservative, then all of the sudden we see conservatives turn their back on the First Amendment.’ And I think that’s what we’re seeing here in this case with the FAU president,” Cassanello said.

The American Association of University Professors issued a public statement Monday to remind leaders “of their fundamental duty to protect academic freedom and the absolute necessity to ensure that the freedom to discuss topics of public import without constraint is not curtailed under political pressure.”

“On the one hand, lawmakers are promoting conservative speech on our campuses yet, at the same time, they are punishing what they perceive to be liberal speech,” Cassanello said.

He cited the Hamilton School at University of Florida, created to “educate university students in core texts and great debates of Western civilization;”  the Adam Smith Center at Florida International University, which promotes free-market economics; and the Institute for Governance and Civics at Florida State University, with a mission of “revitalizing civic education while advancing principles of liberty.” All are creatures of the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature.

Cassanello also cited recent laws prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion, like SB 266 in 2023.

A neurologist at the private University of Miami has been fired, The Miami Hurricane reported Saturday. That professor’s post likened Kirk’s assassination to “what has been done to countless Palestinian babies, children, girls, boys, women and men not just of the past two years of the ongoing genocide, but decades,” the campus newspaper reported. 

University of Miami Health said in an Instagram post, “Freedom of speech is a fundamental right. At the same time, expressions that condone or endorse violence or are incompatible with our policies and values are not acceptable.”

Cassanello raised the example of Charles Negy, a professor at the University of Central Florida who was fired after arguing on social media posts in 2020 that Black Americans are not systemically oppressed and that their “being shielded from legitimate criticism is a privilege” following protests in 2020 sparked by George Floyd’s death.

“What you’re seeing now are conservatives kind of flipping the script,” Cassanello said, calling it “complete and utter hypocrisy.”

Following arbitration, Negy won his job back. UCF maintained he was not fired for his speech, but rather for creating a hostile classroom environment. The College Fix, a conservative-leaning outlet, said Nagy “had to defeat a cancellation.”

Alan Levine, vice chair of the Florida Board of Governors, shared his view on the Kirk-related investigations on social media.

Levine said he supports Hasner’s action.

Educators nationwide face similar calls from lawmakers and the general public, including in South Carolina, Kentucky, Iowa, and in Texas, where roughly 180 complaints have been filed against educators.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida released a statement about teachers facing investigation and removal Tuesday.

“The ACLU of Florida condemns all forms of political violence. It has no place in a true democracy. Nor does unbridled trampling of constitutional protections.

“The First Amendment does not protect speech that is likely and intended to provoke immediate acts of violence, or speech that expresses a serious intent to commit a specific act of violence, but it does protect robust free expression, which includes criticism of the past words and actions of prominent public figures.

“Dissent, disagreement, and counterspeech that criticizes political views should not be confused with condoning or encouraging violence, and should not be subject to the retaliatory, unconstitutional ire of politicians, which only feeds hostility and division,” the ACLU said.

The ACLU said it stands by prepared to “protect and preserve” the First Amendment, “even when we disagree.”

“Government actors calling for people to lose their jobs and livelihoods because they exercised their right to freely express political views that are controversial — a right Kirk himself exercised and encouraged for others — is alarming. Our state leaders should be focused on quelling tensions, not exacerbating them by stoking further division and punishing viewpoints with which they disagree,” the ACLU wrote.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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