Hank Coxe: New civics courses should include lessons on nonpartisanship

A powerful common denominator has always served well our systems of justice and public education. Both institutions are committed to steering clear of politics because their frameworks forbid it. The Florida Constitution mandates that judges be nonpartisan. (Art. V, Sec. 13(a)), as well as that school board members be nonpartisan (Art. IX, Se. 4(a)).

One of the fundamental reasons is to allow them to serve their respective missions: provide justice and quality education equally to all citizens, armed with independence. Both institutions are now confronted with threats by politicians who believe that power is deserving of more power, without an appreciation of the accompanying responsibilities.

In 2012, exactly 10 years ago, three justices of the Florida Supreme Court stood for retention on the ballot. Florida's Constitution intended that voters would measure their qualifications without regard to whom they favored or to whom they were beholden. In an unprecedented display of political arrogance not previously seen in Florida, the Executive Committee of the Florida Republican Party declared public opposition to the retention of all three.

There was no claim the justices were dishonest, or issued decisions improperly influenced contrary to their oaths. It was a political attack on a nonpartisan, independent branch of government. To the credit of the voting public all were retained, but the shield that had protected all citizens had now been pierced by political interests invading a nonpartisan institution

Our federal judiciary is protected by lifetime appointments and is also nonpartisan. Were it not for this independence our country would be without integrated schools, gender equality in the workplace and voting rights protection for all.

In 2022, 10 years after the political assault on the three justices, an ugly attack has now been launched on our nonpartisan school boards. The thought that our children could be taught in either a "Democrat" or "Republican" environment strikes of some western European approaches to education in the early to mid-20th century and concepts of indoctrination might be a meaningful parallel.

Perhaps the nature of the human condition cries out, when in power, for even more control, as the Democrats themselves attempted with Roosevelt's 1937 unsuccessful "court-packing" plan. But it is especially frightening when people want control over the minds of our children.

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Is this paranoia? This is the statement from Dean Black, local Republican Party chair, as published via email on Aug. 25, immediately after Duval's most recent elections:

"These victories officially FLIP the School Board to majority registered Republicans 4-3. More importantly it rejects the WOKE indoctrination, sexualization and Marxist policies that have been allowed to occur and puts the power back into hands of PARENTS! Furthermore, the Republican Party of Duval County expects our Republican majority to GOVERN like Republicans! We must protect our kids, defend parental rights and push back against woke indoctrination."

My three children went all the way through Duval public schools and never heard of "woke indoctrination" (whatever that means), "sexualization" (whatever that means) and Marxist policies (scary, but never heard it in their school experiences.)

Our legislature seems proud of new laws requiring public school civics education. I don’t know if civics books must qualify under new state guidelines which also dictate to our educators what they may teach, what books the children may read, what discussions can be had in classrooms or how a student's questions must be answered.

One of my fears is that the new civic lessons may not include teaching the insistence by our Founding Fathers to resist government interference in private lives and that the works of Henry David Thoreau will no longer be required reading.

Nonpartisan school leadership ensures what Florida has long believed, which is that education taught children to use their own minds, not mimic the minds and thinking of others. We learned centuries ago that our children will eventually figure this all out for themselves and we will all do just fine. I take pride in the success of my children, which they achieved without the bizarre rantings of Dean Black.

I hope that our schools will require, within the civics curriculum, attention to the power of nonpartisanship, the ways in which it has made this nation strong and remain committed to the value of independent thought.

Henry M. "Hank" Coxe is a former president of the Florida Bar Association and formerly a member of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission 

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.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Hank Coxe: Civics courses should include lessons on nonpartisanship