School ‘indoctrination’ is DeSantis’ political fairy tale

Florida has been the epicenter for much of the culture-war fear-mongering emanating from GOP statehouses around the country, (“Agency cites CRT in rejecting math books,” April 16) especially as it relates to public education. Those who reside in the social-media twilight zone might well believe we are teaching sex education to kindergartners, assigning ribald novels to middle schoolers, and extolling critical race theory in high school government class.

Been in a classroom lately? Then you would recognize this bunkum and balderdash for what it is — a political fairy tale starring Ron DeSantis, hero to his angry conservative base, who saves the day by vanquishing the imaginary boogeymen conjured by rogue teachers indoctrinating students with a leftist woke ideology.

After nearly 30 years in public education as a licensed mental-health therapist, classroom teacher, and instructional coach, the only “indoctrination” I have observed, let alone imposed, is the dedicated attempt to get kids to follow the correct steps in solving a math problem, deconstructing a reading passage, or similar academic pursuit. This is how it is in the trenches, the real world. It is a place most pandering culture war politicians do not recognize because they have never been there.

Joe Finger Orlando

JoAnn Lee Frank’s April 16 letter (”DeSantis’ immigrant policy helps Florida”) praising Ron DeSantis because he “won’t allow Florida to be burdened with illegal immigrants” shows that our governor’s strategy of throwing red meat to his right-wing base is having the desired effect. The letter-writer and many others have obviously fallen for the political theater of busing the illegal immigrants to D.C.

While this stunt makes for good headlines, it does not make up for the governor’s failure to deal with illegal-immigration issues in a meaningful way.

A single bus full of immigrants is not a “burden.” Any so-called burden might instead be the many thousands of illegal workers who are here because of the loopholes in the law.

Illegal immigration and undocumented workers are real problems that require real, and thoughtful solutions. Unfortunately, DeSantis has decided that headlines are more important than actually fixing those problems.

Alan Herrington Orlando

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A direct result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a loss of revenue for Russia, either through seized accounts or payments withheld as penalties.

I would propose that the money that’s being seized and held by various nations and institutions should all be consolidated into one secured escrow account, so that Putin fully understands the total cost of this war.

At the end of Putin’s war with Ukraine that money will then be used to rebuild ALL the destruction that Russia has imposed on Ukraine. Sanctions will remain in effect until then, depending on regime.

Bohdan Yuri Orlando

Paul Krugman uses lots of big words that sent me to the dictionary to better understand what he is saying (”Republicans still remain the party of plutocrats,” April 16). Krugman may have enlightened his readers by defining the meaning of “plutocrat” in his column before he proceeded with his cynicism regarding the members of the Republican Party.

Our democratic nation has elected a Democratic majority that has squandered opportunities to make a difference for their constituents. After reading his column several times, I still don’t understand Krugman’s message. He offers no hope, just negative, hateful cynicism. It makes this reader wonder: Just how much money does the New York Times pay this guy?

Fred Gardner Eustis