Title: Public School Educational Instruction

Summary: Requires district school boards to designate one month of school year to celebrate Founding Fathers of United States of America & principles inherent in country's founding documents; specifies focus of instruction during designated month; provides that instruction may be integrated into existing school curriculum.

Full Text:
An act relating to public school educational instruction; amending s. 1003.44, F.S.; requiring district school boards to designate one month of the school year to celebrate the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and the principles inherent in the country's founding documents; specifying the focus of instruction during the designated month; providing that instruction may be integrated into the existing school curriculum; providing an effective date. 12 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 14 Section 1. Subsection (3) is added to section 1003.44, Florida Statutes, to read: 1003.44 Patriotic programs; rules.-(3)(a) Each district school board shall designate one month of the school year to celebrate the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and the principles inherent in the country's founding documents. This month may be coordinated with Celebrate Freedom Week which is observed pursuant to s. 1003.421. (b) During the designated month, students shall be provided instruction that focuses on: 1. The leading figures present at the country's founding who were instrumental in crafting the founding documents and setting democratic political precedent. 2. The moral and civic virtue, self-sacrifice, intellectual genius, and patriotism demonstrated by the country's founding fathers. 3. The founding documents, including, but not limited to, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, and the Federalist Papers. 4. The historical and philosophical importance of the Declaration of Independence with its emphasis that all people "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 5. The principles inherent in the founding documents, including, but not limited to, individual freedom, limited representative democratic government, a free market economy and system, civic virtue, national sovereignty, natural law, and self-evident truth. (c) The instruction may be integrated into the existing school curriculum through methods including, but not limited to, supplementing lesson plans, holding school assemblies, or providing school-related activities. Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011.