Fiscal Rangers

Education Journal investigation shows Florida State University waived admissions criteria for connected students

Following a University of Texas admissions scandal, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an investigation into admissions favoritism at 13 top public universities Sunday. They found Florida State Unversity to be dropping entrance admission criteria for connected students, and up to 40 times, connected leaders or alumni contacted the admissions office to "follow up" on specific admissions, unlike several universities which did not allow such actions. Read more →

Florida the Huckster State Update: Florida's Tourism Promotion Agency Refuses to Disclose payments to promoters

Florida has a tourism promotions agency, Visit Florida, funded with tax money that promotes tourism in Florida. They paid a rapper, Pitbull, to promote Florida tourism on his Twitter account, but will not disclose the payments. Here are links to an Orlando Sentinel article and editorial, and our comments. We consider this to be another example of Florida as a Huckster State, with low level oversight and transparency. Read more →

Augusta County, VA School District closes school after angry parents ask why they had students recite the Islamic Shahada but not the Lord's Prayer

The movement of anger against school administrators who allow Islamic biased teaching or use of Islam biased books is growing. A school in Virginia was closed due to hostile phone calls about the Islamic teaching bias. "During a world geography lesson on Friday about world religions, including Islam, teacher Cheryl LaPorte had students complete an assignment that involved practicing calligraphy and writing a Muslim statement of faith, also known as the Shahada, which translates as: "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Students were also reportedly shown copies of the Quran. " Recitation of the Shahada is a fundamental step in conversion to Islam. However, when a few students refused to complete the assignment the word got out to the parent community. Parents are "outraged" over LaPorte's lessons and say they will not have their students complete world geography in her class." Here is the article. And here is their local TV station's report. Posted Dec. 17, 2015 In this case, the Islam bias was woven into a Calligraphy assignment. Many textbooks now use a generic school topic to insert Islam or liberal biases into the lesson. In this case, it was Calligraphy. Why... Read more →

Lake County, FL Legislators Delegation Summit - Dec. 9, 2015, Leesburg, FL

Every year the five Lake County, Florida Legislators hold their annual Lake County Legislators' Summit to hear three minutes of public input from local agencies and citizens. Yesterday, Dec. 9, 2015, they held the annual meeting for three hours with 53 speakers. They use the input to set their priorities for the upcoming Florida legislation session that starts in January, 2016. Read more →