Florida Senate - 2011                                     SB 788
       
       
       
       By Senator Diaz de la Portilla
       
       
       
       
       36-01070-11                                            2011788__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to public school educational
    3         instruction; amending s. 1003.44, F.S.; requiring
    4         district school boards to designate one month of the
    5         school year to celebrate the Founding Fathers of the
    6         United States of America and the principles inherent
    7         in the country’s founding documents; specifying the
    8         focus of instruction during the designated month;
    9         providing that instruction may be integrated into the
   10         existing school curriculum; providing an effective
   11         date.
   12  
   13  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   14  
   15         Section 1. Subsection (3) is added to section 1003.44,
   16  Florida Statutes, to read:
   17         1003.44 Patriotic programs; rules.—
   18         (3)(a) Each district school board shall designate one month
   19  of the school year to celebrate the Founding Fathers of the
   20  United States of America and the principles inherent in the
   21  country’s founding documents. This month may be coordinated with
   22  Celebrate Freedom Week which is observed pursuant to s.
   23  1003.421.
   24         (b) During the designated month, students shall be provided
   25  instruction that focuses on:
   26         1. The leading figures present at the country’s founding
   27  who were instrumental in crafting the founding documents and
   28  setting democratic political precedent.
   29         2. The moral and civic virtue, self-sacrifice, intellectual
   30  genius, and patriotism demonstrated by the country’s founding
   31  fathers.
   32         3. The founding documents, including, but not limited to,
   33  the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United
   34  States, the Bill of Rights, and the Federalist Papers.
   35         4. The historical and philosophical importance of the
   36  Declaration of Independence with its emphasis that all people
   37  “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
   38  that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
   39  happiness.”
   40         5. The principles inherent in the founding documents,
   41  including, but not limited to, individual freedom, limited
   42  representative democratic government, a free market economy and
   43  system, civic virtue, national sovereignty, natural law, and
   44  self-evident truth.
   45         (c) The instruction may be integrated into the existing
   46  school curriculum through methods including, but not limited to,
   47  supplementing lesson plans, holding school assemblies, or
   48  providing school-related activities.
   49         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011.