Republicans aim to take Florida's education model nationwide

Why it matters: Florida in recent years has been thrust into the national spotlight for its hyper-conservative approach to education, serving as a test kitchen for policies that public education advocates say undermine students' and teachers' rights.

• Some have criticized the state's Department of Education for its push to include Judeo-Christian ideas in public schools, including through its ties to conservative Christian establishments such as Hillsdale College and PragerU.

Between the lines: The agenda parallels Project 2025, a roadmap for a second Trump presidency written by the Heritage Foundation, a top conservative think tank.

The big picture: If implemented, some education policy experts fear the fallout they've seen from Florida's policies — like a chilling effect on speech and LGBTQ+ expression in schools — would expand nationwide.

• "It's dire," Katie Blankenship, Florida senior director for PEN America, a free-speech advocacy group, told Axios.
• K-12 teachers will leave the profession out of fear and "public universities will no longer be a place of freedom of ideas but become political institutions," she said, pointing to the state's takeover of New College of Florida.

The other side: Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, accused critics of "fear mongering" and argued instead that the platform puts parents "in the driver's seat" regarding their child's upbringing.

The intrigue: During a Mom's for Liberty town hall last week, the leader of a conservative interest group told attendees Justice contacted him to participate in the development of the platform.

• "You'll see the fingerprints of the Moms for Liberty and their fight for control for parents and for moms," Ed Martin, president of the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, told the crowd.

State of play: Under Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration, a slew of education rules and laws have reshaped the state's education system — and many of those changes are echoed in the GOP's platform.

• The Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics, prohibits instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.
• The "Stop Woke Act" restricts discussions related to race. A year later, the Board of Education certified new Black history standards that claim enslaved people benefitted from their bondage.
• The governor defunded diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at Florida's public colleges and allowed the state to remove programs, majors and minors that teach "identity politics."
• Florida was the first state to adopt the Classic Learning Test (CLT), which was seen as an alternative to the SAT and is mostly used by Christian and charter schools.
• The state has one of the country's most expansive school choice programs, which siphons funding from school districts to private schools subject to little oversight or accountability.

Yes, but: Despite the parallels, Justice said Trump "didn't take DeSantis' ideas. [The party] is listening to the voters [and] listening to parents."

The bottom line: The policies — especially those boosting parental choice — are attractive to the GOP because they fall in line with the party's stance on individual autonomy, Florida Policy Institute senior policy analyst Norín Dollard told Axios.

• "Vaccines? Your choice. You know what's best for your kid," she said. "It's a consistent philosophical approach to say individuals are more important than the collective, and I think that's what's at play."
• Public education, she added, is a collective good.