Florida Becomes First State To Adopt “Phoenix Declaration,” An Education Policy From The Authors Of Project 2025

On Nov. 13, Florida’s State Board of Education unanimously voted to ratify and adopt the Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education. The document is authored by the Heritage Foundation, the same right-wing political group that drafted Project 2025 — and critics say the Phoenix Declaration is pushing forward much of the same agenda, but with softer language that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Teachers fear that was intentional and that the declaration may be weaponized against them.

Florida’s Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas stated that the declaration establishes an “affiliation” with the Heritage Foundation, and while it is not an enforceable law or policy, it promotes the principles that should guide Florida’s educators and policymakers going forward.

“We often call out what is problematic in education, pushing an ideology over indoctrination, whether that's the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary schools or divisive concepts like critical race theory and DEI that treats people differently based on the way God created them,” Kamoutsas said. “Well, this talks about what we want to see. We want to see parents empowered. We want to see curriculum, transparency, we want to see academic excellence in all of our students.”

What does the Phoenix Declaration say?

The full text is available on the Heritage Foundation’s website, but here’s a summary. The declaration begins by saying that we live in a time of “moral and political crises when too many schools have lost their way,” and it is the responsibility of parents, educators, and lawmakers to “recommit” to the “central purposes of education.”

The introduction goes on to say a lot of things that sound good and universally appealing. For example, “Schools should equip students with the knowledge, character, and skills necessary to succeed in life as individuals and to fulfill their obligations as members of their families, local communities, and country.” The document then defines what it thinks are the core goals of education and the paths to fulfilling them that schools should adhere to:

Parental Choice and Responsibility: “Parents should have the freedom to choose the learning environments that align with their values and best meet their children’s individual learning needs, with public education funding following the child.”

Transparency and Accountability: “Schools must never have misguided policies that hide information from parents about their children’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. The highest form of accountability is when schools are answerable directly to well-informed parents.”

Truth and Goodness: “Education must be grounded in truth. Students should learn that there is objective truth and that it is knowable. Science courses must be grounded in reality, not ideological fads. Students should learn that good and evil exist, and that human beings have the capacity and duty to choose good.”

Cultural Transmission: “Students should therefore learn about America’s founding principles and roots in the broader Western and Judeo-Christian traditions. Students should study the best that has been thought and said, engaging in the great conversation among the competing viewpoints that comprise our intellectual heritage, so that they freely make the best views their own.”

Character Formation: “Education should cultivate the virtues and discipline necessary for self-governance. Students must be held accountable for their behavior, both to learn that their choices have consequences and to maintain the order necessary for learning to proceed.”

Academic Excellence: “Schools should prioritize a rigorous and content-rich curriculum rooted in foundational subjects such as math, literature, science, history, civics, and the arts. Emphasis should be placed on core knowledge and tried-and-true pedagogy rather than fads or experimental teaching methods.”

Citizenship: “A republic depends upon an educated and patriotic citizenry. Schools should teach students the civic virtues and civic knowledge necessary for self-government and the task of building a more perfect union, including the value of civil disagreement. Schools should also foster a healthy sense of patriotism and cultivate gratitude for and attachment to our country and all who serve its central institutions. Students should learn the whole truth about America — its merits and failings — without obscuring that America is a great source of good in the world and that we have a tradition that is worth passing on.”

Immediately following the adoption of the Phoenix Declaration, the state’s Board also adopted new academic standards for teaching children about the “history and evils of communism” in social studies. Board Chairperson Ryan Petty connected this step to the adoption of the Phoenix Declaration, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times, saying that teaching about the “evils of communism” fits neatly into the Phoenix Declaration’s goal of prioritizing objective truth.

What do critics say? What about teachers?

Multiple citizens attended the Board’s meeting to object, calling the Phoenix Declaration “white Christian nationalist ideology” and saying it’s “indoctrination dressed up in pretty words.” Carole Gauronskas, vice president of the Florida Education Association (FEA), told the board “that the standards included a distorted view of history, while also appearing to direct students what to think instead of how to think,” according to the Tampa Bay Times. The concepts of parental choice and transparency align with Project 2025’s goals to cut funding to public schools and promote school vouchers, reports the Pensacola News Journal.

The FEA is Florida’s largest teacher union and association. In a press release, the organization emphatically denounced the Phoenix Declaration, calling it “the latest thinly veiled attempt by billionaire-backed special interests to dismantle and politicize Florida’s public education system.”

“This political campaign disguised as a declaration seeks to hand over control of our classrooms to political operatives and shift blame, pointing fingers rather than offering real solutions to the challenges facing our schools, students, and communities... Instead of chasing ideological agendas, the State Board of Education members should focus on what truly helps students: making sure public schools are fully funded, addressing the critical teacher and staff shortage, and guaranteeing that every child has access to a strong, neighborhood public school.”

Historian, author, and teacher Tad Stoermer took to TikTok to break down how the Phoenix Declaration sets the stage for politicians to choose how history is taught and what “truths” children hear. Also on TikTok, a South Carolina teacher explained how each bullet point of the Declaration aligns with conservative beliefs you can see espoused in Project 2025.

Her comments were flooded with Florida parents and educators expressing their fear and frustration:

• “FL civics teacher here — it’s hard watching this from the inside,” said one.
• “Kids should be taught about good & evil… they do multiple lockdown drills each year. They already know this,” wrote another.
• “Florida is now 100% teaching racism.”
• “I don’t want any type of spin on my child’s education. I just want my 2-year-old to learn FACTS. This really makes me angry. If this is still in place when he’s school age, I’ll have to do homeschooling or move.”
• “I am glad I'm not teaching anymore.”
• “I wish we could afford to leave this nightmare of a state.”

Another Florida teacher took to Reddit to ask how worried they should be, and many others replied saying they actually moved out of state or are considering moving as a result of the state’s education policies in recent years. They cited Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2023 “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibited any discussion of gender identity or sexual orientation in classrooms from kindergarten to third grade. Florida has also led the nation in book bans, fired an AP English teacher for using a student’s preferred name, and announced it would end vaccine mandates to attend public school.

Will other states adopt the Phoenix Declaration?

While Florida is the first state to formally adopt the document, it may not be the last. The Heritage Foundation’s website says these other states’ officials have signed on and endorsed its contents:

• Governor Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma
• The Honorable Scott Walker, former Governor, Wisconsin
• Megan Degenfelder, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Wyoming
• Manny Diaz, Commissioner of Education, Florida
• Frank Edelblut, Commissioner of Education, New Hampshire
• Ryan Walters, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Oklahoma
• Ellen Weaver, Superintendent of Education, South Carolina
• Ryan Petty, Vice Chair, Florida State Board of Education

Again, Florida officials have stated that the Phoenix Declaration is not a law or formal policy, but rather a set of guiding principles. That said, in a state that historically has not sided with its teachers, it’s easy to see why this new document makes educators wary and parents worried about what their children might be taught in history class.