001i just kind of want to take a step back a little bit here and explain to this group where equity energy not educa not equity education but equity in the field of education what it means to us where it came from and why we're having these conversations the federal government as somebody uh described up here identifies subgroups black hispanic we have the speakers of second language all of those that we mentioned economically disadvantaged students with disabilities we have an obligation for the federal government and the state government that we have to close what's called an achievement gap they measure those against the white group and if they're underperforming any of these subgroups are underperforming we have an obligation to close the gap at the federal state level and this has been around for years guys
002this is not new been around for years through many different administrations at the federal level so that is what equity means to us when we start talking about it and equity to us in education means awareness every one of us has equal access to an education but not every one of us walks in here on equal footing that's what it means i need to understand your background to really get to know you and have a relationship with you you need to understand mine i'm saddened that so many so many comments tonight were strictly about race i didn't hear anything about economically disadvantaged i didn't hear anything about disabled students barely heard anything about speakers of second languages what i heard about was race that's not what equity means to us in education so i don't
003know what you're hearing but that is not it as far as eos goes i hear that we are dumbing down what we're doing couldn't be further from the truth guys we have broadened our scope on who we're bringing in the curriculum doesn't change it's set by either the state the national level or international level we don't control the curriculum we teach it and in the end that student whether they were a straight a student that got in or what we call in our business a level three on fsa student who we said you know we think you might be able to do it why don't you give it a try in the end they have to say pass that same state national or international exam we have no control to lower the bar we have
004no control to dumb down any of it that's ridiculous to me if you're a sports person and we talk about meritocracy okay really that's not the issue for us you still have to perform so you still have to end with the same result so let's think about that for a minute we have players out of high school and or college that don't make it to the next level let's say football they don't go right into a university and play football they don't go right to the pros but there's something called a walk-on a walk-on didn't have the same same level of merit when they walked in the door but to stay on that team they have to perform to the same level that's what it is for us so it's ridiculous that we're lowering the
005bar we don't even have the ability to do that i'm sorry guys we don't equity and education yes it's training we did with the with comparatively 1700 instructional staff members we had 66 to 100 i don't know guidance counselors social workers and yes some teachers teachers that are on the equity task force at each of our schools because we're charged with closing the achievement gap i also want to point out there are state statutes state statute one thousand point 1000.05 i read it to you before some of you that were here i'll read it again public schools and florida college institutions shall develop and implement methods and strategies to increase the participation of students of a particular race ethnicity national origin general disability or marital yeah marital status in programs and courses in which students
006of that particular race ethnicity and so on uh have been traditionally underrepresented including but not limited to mathematics science computer technology electronics communications and so on we're doing what the florida state statute tells us we have to do i continue another florida state statute 1000.02 which happens to be the policy and guiding principles for the florida k-12 education system letter c under section two and this is what we we have to ensure that independent institutions and home education programs maintain their independence autonomy and and non-governmental status and then it goes on a system that maximizes education access and allows the opportunity for a high quality education and for all floridians letter d a system that safeguards equity and supports academic excellence this is in our florida state statutes guys and this is what we're doing
007nothing more nothing less i look around the room and what i hear is that it's been a while since probably many of us in the room have been inside of a classroom i encourage you i encourage you to volunteer i encourage you to visit i encourage you to see the reality of the thousands of incredible lessons that are happening every single day in our classrooms i also challenge you to show me where we're teaching this yeah you can show me where there's words in a training and parse those words out and accuse us of something but that's just that and we're not teaching critical race theory we're not doing it in a silver or covert way and it was mentioned here tonight and everyone in this room i think understands this our current governor would
008not tolerate it our current commissioner of education would not tolerate not for a second and they would be on the phone with me first and then right down the line so again i don't know as i've heard another superintendent within the state say i don't know if i have to stand on my head i don't know how many times i can tell you it's not happening but it's not happening i welcome you as this gentleman here did to have a conversation with us i welcome you to meet with gina and her team to see what equity means to us because it means so much more than race to us it's about lifting every one of your kids and your grandkids up and having them reach that same bar