Guest columnist: Diaz jeopardizes future federal funds for Florida's at-risk youth

Marion Tischler
·3 min read
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz talks with his peers during the opening day of the state' 2023 Legislative Session on Tuesday.
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz talks with his peers during the opening day of the state' 2023 Legislative Session on Tuesday.

Duval County citizens of all persuasions agree that protecting our adolescent youth is of utmost importance. School-based services are an efficient and effective means to deliver consistent, accessible and accurate information relating to behaviors that could be harmful to adolescents. Also, as taxpayers, we want to eliminate costly bureaucratic redundancy by not using state taxes to pay for programs that are readily available (and funded) by competent, respected federal agencies.

Recently, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz intervened with six major metropolitan school districts that have direct contracts for grants with the Center of Disease Control to conduct school-based research on youth risk behaviors, as well as school health policies and practices.

Duval County is in the final year of its CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance grant, which includes adolescent services and requires administration of the surveys. The county has participated in these surveys since 2009.

More coverage:Could ending CDC youth survey also cancel Duval schools teen health centers?

Hiring firm helps out:IT staffing firm pays for computer magnet school Andrew Jackson High to open 'tech lab'

Letters:DCPS should act and pass resolutions to keep fear from winning in schools

In May 2022, Jacob Oliva — then the state's interim education commissioner — reported that the state would be developing a youth risk survey to track harmful behaviors and to inform public policy. There are significant costs associated with developing and administering a new reliable survey instrument. Such costs are borne by us, the state's taxpayers.

Now we are in 2023, a bellwether year to measure impacts of the post-pandemic experience and of new state legislation that has negated acceptance of alternative gender identities and denies women (even sexually mature adolescents) reproductive health care. One might infer that the Florida governor and GOP Legislature want to avoid the youth risk behavior survey results and produce state-specific results that fit their narrative by eliminating gender identity questions and questions relating to reproduction.

It is possible that such a survey may also infringe on student privacy with tracking of individuals, rather than conducting anonymous responses for privacy that promotes truthful answers.

Sixth-grade teacher Mishelle Levine smiles with her class after receiving a Golden Apple award from Champions for Learning on Feb. 17 at Oakridge Middle in Naples. The education foundation made a surprise visit to six schools to recognize teachers and their classroom best practices.
Sixth-grade teacher Mishelle Levine smiles with her class after receiving a Golden Apple award from Champions for Learning on Feb. 17 at Oakridge Middle in Naples. The education foundation made a surprise visit to six schools to recognize teachers and their classroom best practices.

Without a CDC-approved survey program, Duval’s school district could lose future funding of about $500,000 for school-based services, including 15 teen health centers staffed by nurses and health educators. The teen-friendly services include individual and group health education; testing for STDs, HIV and pregnancy; as well as linkage to treatment, care and counseling.

There are many issues to be outraged about concerning the disruption of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance grant and CDC funding. These should fuel each of us to hold our state Legislature and its agencies accountable for threatening our school district about a program that is highly beneficial for our youth; for pandering to misinformation from a small number of activists; for sensationalizing the content of the survey to score political points for our ambitious governor; and for using state tax dollars unnecessarily.

We must ask our superintendent and School Board to be courageous in carrying on the YRBS work and to find an alternative contractor to conduct the survey with the CDC.

Marion Tischler, community advocate and volunteer, Jacksonville

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The print edition of this column that appeared on March 11 contained two errors, the name of the interim education commissioner and the amount of future funding that could be lost in Duval County. The errors have been corrected and we regret any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Canceled survey could jeopardize future funding for at-risk youth