"The second half of the notorious sentence reads, 'in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,' yet nowhere in the law does it define what is age or developmentally appropriate."
I think the key phrases here aren't "age-appropriate" or "developmentally appropriate", but "in accordance with state standards". The way that I read this part is that the State of Florida has educational folks designing curriculum and the like and it'll (likely) be those folks who decide what's appropriate or not, in the same way that Florida probably doesn't teach first graders about the Civil War.
Depending on your opinion of civil servants with domain-level expertise working in regulatory agencies, it makes the situation better or worse. If you're a fan of local schools deciding those policies, then it's a negative development as that authority is flowing upward toward Tallahassee.
If I were to make one change, I'd iterate the (obvious) intent of the law after the Eric Erickson quote towards the end: it's not a smear if the bill is, in intent and action, a "Don't Say Gay" bill.
"The second half of the notorious sentence reads, 'in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,' yet nowhere in the law does it define what is age or developmentally appropriate."
I think the key phrases here aren't "age-appropriate" or "developmentally appropriate", but "in accordance with state standards". The way that I read this part is that the State of Florida has educational folks designing curriculum and the like and it'll (likely) be those folks who decide what's appropriate or not, in the same way that Florida probably doesn't teach first graders about the Civil War.
Depending on your opinion of civil servants with domain-level expertise working in regulatory agencies, it makes the situation better or worse. If you're a fan of local schools deciding those policies, then it's a negative development as that authority is flowing upward toward Tallahassee.
Opening Day here for the Red Sox, but I believe you hit a Home Run with this post.
Great write-up.
If I were to make one change, I'd iterate the (obvious) intent of the law after the Eric Erickson quote towards the end: it's not a smear if the bill is, in intent and action, a "Don't Say Gay" bill.