you think this is just a community center? know, it's more than that. comcast is partnering with a thousand community centers to create wi-fi so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. florida's republican governor

spoke at the 2022 jewish leadership conference and discussed his decision to keep the florida schools and businesses largely opened throughout the early months of the covid-19 pandemic. this is just shy of 40 minutes. >> thank you. it's wonderful to be here. they can't cancel me. i'm going to speak my mind. i saw that there was a little bit of opposition coming here. all i can tell you is that when

the left is having a spasm that tells you that in florida we are winning on the issues that matter. and after all i wasn't going to let a protest detour me from coming to speak in front of a lot of the future voters in the state of florida. i want to thank roger for the introduction and i'm happy to be able to share some of florida's story with you all here today. when i think about where florida is and how florida has handled the last couple of years and i look at c some other states, there's a lot different story. i think back to the founding fathers and a story where there was a debate between three of the most prominent founding fathers, doctor benjamin rush, thomas f jefferson and benjamin franklin. and they were debating what was the world's oldest profession. and doctor rush was a physician.

he said the world's oldest profession is a physician because eve was cut out of the rib of adam he had to be a physician. jeffersonof said i don't think that's right. he was an architect and designed monticello and that is something near and dear to him. the oldest profession is the architect. who do you think created the order out of all the chaos and frankliner said no, you're wron. the oldest profession is the politician. who do you think created the chaos in the first place? and policy has matter to probably more than ever over the last few years and i am pleased to say on issue after issue florida has led the way and i will talk about some of the statistics and outcomes but you don'tt even need to read that yu can just open your eyes and look and see how people behave because not only have we seen an unprecedented w migration into florida for people relocating

but we have seen huge increases in tourism. the 2021 with covid still going on we set a domestic tourism recordin in florida. if you look at the first quarter of this year, we represent 45% of all of the tourism coming to the united states going to the state of florida. if you look what we've been able to do with our economy and our itbudget, our fiscal year will d june 30th with a budget of about $101.5 million that is less than half of new york's budget even though i would put our services and infrastructure and schools ands, a higher education systemp against new york any day of the week. we do all that with no state income tax and one off the lowet tax burdens in the united states. [applause] and with the budget, we will and the fiscal year june 30th with a

surplus in excess of $21 billion. the largest in florida's history. so you see people wanting to live in a florida and wanting to travel to florida. the best validation we could have is if you look at some of these other politicians and states walk down the governors and mayors and some of the most hysterical voices on cable news over the last two years always criticizing florida saying we shouldn't have schools and business open and all these things and yet the first chance they get to escape their own policies, they end up in our state. you see them in miami or palm beach and so i think that speaks volumes because people will posture, people will have the political narrative that they will want to send but the question is when you behave what does your behavior say about a good place to be and not and i can tell you within the overall

have seen thatwe we have seen a boom in jewish migration into florida. i would say it's the number one destination for american jews who are relocating from within the united states and in particular some of the religious jewish communities are booming like never before. now i think there's a lot of reasons for that and we are very proud of what we've l been ableo do. we make sure institutions like the stateur universities are treating anti-semitism the same way they would treat racism. we are not going to letet that n rampant without the state. every year i've been governor, we provided millions of dollars

for security at the state's jewish state schools when i became governor it was just on ovthe heels of air b&b decidingo discriminate against certain citizens. we immediately put them on the list and air b&b he backed down and we were able to win on that fight. [applause] we enacted a moment of silence in every school so students have the opportunity to reflect. we authorize united to be able to provide emergency services and we are doing a great job in south florida. with the state of israel, we have seen huge benefits from

that trip. that is a pretty good record. apparently that is the type of record if it gets you banned from speaking at a holocaust museum, but it is what it is. [applause]um i think it is meaningful for people and not just florida, these are all policies overwhelmingly supported by the christian community throughout the state of florida. one thingse you learned we havea diverse region but i can tell you if you look at it she was like when we move the american embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem you probably had as high or higher support in the panhandle of florida than in the more jewish heavy areas, so this isis something that everybody across the state is very supportive of. but i think that's important

because unfortunately, we've seen in this area where they'veb been targeted. it's wrong and we've got to stand against it so this makes people feel like it's a great environment but i don't think that's the main reason why you are seeing so much interest living in florida and vacationed in florida. clearly one of the reasons, as roger said, the territory as being the free state of florida and if it is difficult to do in terms of a lot of the stuff that was flying around from the data and the science perspective. and quite frankly, i was the one that was following the traditional science. the lock down, those were radical departures from what had been accepted in terms of how you deal with respiratory pandemics.

those were something that had a huge benefits for the states and i think the states that went in the other direction we haven't even scratched the surface of some of the negative impacts you're going to see in those the destructive and draconian policies.er we also couldn't let the society descend into being some type of a biomedical security state and so we banned discrimination on the basiss of the covid vaccine in the state of florida. kids have the right to be in school and the parents can make the decision about this particular issue one way or another. causing people to lose their jobs over this decision we call the special session of the legislature and we said in the state of florida you are

protected in whatever decision you make and you are not going to have to choose between this and your job. [applause] that's one off the reasons. new york is usually number one in tourism every year. i think they've been number one for 25 years. florida recently passed them, and one of the reasons they passed is because as people go on vacation they actually want it to be a vacation. they don't want to be shaken down to producey some type of a medical passport just to get a cheeseburger or beer. we knew that it was a free zone and they would be able to make t decisions. we were also one of the major states from the very beginning to protect religious worship and institutions. [applause] some states were closing down

forcibly. churches and synagogues and at the beginning therere was an emphasis on not having large gatherings. i understand that. but what we said is using the heavy hand of the government to squash one of the core constitutional rights not only is that not right but the incursions on people's rights so we said your protected and people would talk with rabbis and priests and pastors about ways to mitigate. i was somebody that said we've got to give people something. if you do online, that's your choice but don'tin just close down. we need you in the fight because people are going to need this more than ever so we were happy to stand with the religious institutions. and i looked up some states and they would close the churches but you could go to the liquor store or even some of the other

establishments. how is that possible in the united states and i think that if we were here just three years ago and someone stood at the podium and said you would be in a situation where synagogues and churches would be forcibly closed, i don't think very many people would have thought that that would have been something people could get away with in the united states. they didn't get away with it in a lot of places in the country end of the courts basically rolled over for many months until recently. freedom does matter empowering people to make choices matters and not always having a heavy hand of the government hanging over your head like a sort of matter. it matters for business because they knew as long as i was in the chair but they were going to be able to operate and they were not going to have some local politicians closed on their business or impose some of these policies that are not grounded in science and i know new york for a long time until very

recently forced toddlers, which i think is inhumane and we would never impose this policy. so the freedom had a lot to do with it. people felt like when they landed in florida it was almost like they were landing in a different country depending on where you're coming from. people enjoyed it and not just to move their families and businesses, which many did, but to be able to come down for two weeks even, let people take a load off and helps rejuvenate them for when they went back and tried to deal withk more of the insanity. another thing we've been able to do in florida is put an emphasis on education. and we consider ourselves a family-friendly state. if therefate was a debate in the country for a long time about whether kids had a right to access in person education at all and there were a few places in the country that locked kids out of school for six months, a

year, and some even longer than that. that was at the behest of politicians and unions and i can tell you when we in florida said every child has the right to be in school five days a week in person,, the union in florida sued me to get the schools closed. now we were able to get our kids in schools and now you look at ait and nobody wants to admit that they were for the school closures. i can tell you i was in the fire during that. i was taking it from all sides. the media, the left, the union. even if some of these squishy republicans were criticizing me for wanting me to have kids in school in person and when i was going through that i was thinking to myself i had to supporters that like me wanted to see them do well and they see all this coming down. you've got to be kidding me.

aree you going to be able to weather this and i said you know what, my job is to protect the education opportunities and jobs of the people of my state and if doing so means i put my own job in jeopardy, let the chips fall where they made. leadership is about standing up for other people before you worry about your own. .. there is a group that does the map of all the school closures. you have the whole united states, each school close to what happens they put little dot on theit map. the eastern seaboard had aab lo. they went on the southern states had some, florida does not dot

on whole state of florida. however it has looked at this. what they said is the places who locked kids out of school did not have reliable in person education. they have seen a widening of the achievement gap between rich, poor, black, white, however you want to slice it. states like florida worked hard to have kids in school even during the difficult times of covid, did not see any increase in the achievement gap. worth its weight in gold in terms of future opportunities, the health of our society going forward. everybody that opposed having the kids in school, they were wrong. we can never let something like that happened in this country again. [applause] we are proud to be the leaders in this country when it comes to tempowering parents to make the

best educational decisions that they can for their kids. we i became governor florida headstrong school choice programs. please the private level with max out. was a private scholarship program had about 100,000 kids. there was really no way he could more in terms of contribution. so i came in, created a competing program that would draw from state resources to be able to provide scholarships to low income parents. mostly single working mothers take advantage of those. so now the state of florida cap over 170,000 kids on some form of private scholarship in our school choice programs. which site i think more than any other state in the country by far. we also have overthrown a 75000 kids in public school choice in

charter schools. which are public schools. the not run a by the union said they are not run by the school districts generally. and so they have the ability to experiment to offer different types of educational opportunities. parents love having those choices. o so in the state of florida depending upon where you are you may have half a dozen legitimate options. i would note our biggest county, miami-dade's been the highest performing urban school district in the country the last few years. if you are in miami-dade the chance you go to your neighborhood. but i was coming up for every rezoned that is where you went. the chance you're going to your neighborhood's own school is percent miami-dade. 70% of the kids are going to schools other than that. that parents looking at their options in making the decision what's best for their family. i can tell you we have been especially supportive of parents

pursuing religious education for their kids but that's an important component to many, many people. the people in this room have the wherewithal to be able to pursue that type of education for their kids if they so choose. not everybody does. we want to make sure every parent has meaningful options to be able to choose schools. here is what i think is the best thing about it.t. it is very good of course if one kid can benefit by going to school that is a better fit. of course you can see the success stories and it is very, very meaningful. even better than that the fact we have a robust choice has improved educational outcomes across the board. including in our school districts. the most recent education achievement rankings by education for k-12 schools at florida at number three in the country. that was not true ten years ago. that was not true 20 years ago. it has caused everybody to do better.

we are really, really proud of that. we put an emphasis not just on educational choice but also supporting the mission of our school districts. we have done a record amount of increases for teacher compensation paid particularly average minimum salaries because they want to be able to recruit really talented people as we go into professions. we also have civics back in the classroom as a requirement in high school. [applause] we have renewed an emphasis on technical and vocational education. many students of lord can graduate high school and actually be certified in things like electrical and hvac. what a talk about having opportunities to be able to earn a good living right off the bat? those are very, very high demand. we've been education at large. we're not doing private scholarships at the exclusion of school districts. we want a rising tide to lift all boats. that's what we're doing in the state of florida paid part of

the reason we do school choice really flows out of our commitment to parents rights when it comes towh education. this is unfortunately i would n say a debate and our society right now about what the appropriate role is for parents eswhen it comes to the schooling of their kids. our view in the state of florida is that parents have a fundamental role when it comes to the education and upbringing of their kids for they have a i right to be involved in what is been taught in schooln they certainly have a right to know what's being taught in school. and we have an obligation in the state of florida to make sure that our school system is educating kids. not trying to indoctrinate kids. [applause] and so, covid awoke a lot of parents to some of the issues that we saw with some of the curriculum. parents going to school board meetings in record numbers.

that was the subject of scrutiny by the department of justice and fbi which is absolutely outrageous that would've been the case. the united states a lot of things that should be working on they were worried about the parents speaking out. this is really something i think parents are engaged in it like never before. our view is we want to empower parents. parents being involved in the education of their kids is good. most teachers if you talk to them they are going to say they love it when the parent takes in interest in the kids education is harder to reach kids and get them to do well if the parent is neglectful, isn't following isn't doing their homework.ac the teachers by a large one it were the only people that don't want the parents involved are those who fear parental involvement will impede their design to use the education system for ideological indoctrination. then they don't the parents.

and so one example of this i signed legislation earlier this year guaranteeing the right of every parent to curriculum transparent in state of florida. you as au parent have the right to know what curriculum is being taught in the schools. the books that are being used. obviously can launch objections if it's not consistent with state standards. now it is hard for me too find a logical objection to that. we were opposed on that by theef left in other people whose their view as you drop the kid off at school and you butt out and leave it to us. we are going to do what we think your y kids need to know. that is not a model that will lead to educational success in this country. that is a model that is firmly been rejected in the state of florida. and so you see it with fights over how much these ideological concepts should be in school.

in our view is that we think of something like critical race theory we say that has no place hundred k-12 schools. we have made sure we have prohibited that. we will teach every aspect of american history. but we are not going to distort history for a modern-day ideological agenda. we are not going to teach our kids to hate our country or to hate each other with the tax dollars of the people of my state. just signed legislation that's going to provide parents with the ability to hold the schoolbl district accountable if they are not following state standards when it comes to those concepts. we also signed legislation called the parental rights in education bill which drew some interest from companies you may have heard of in our country.

basically whatn it says is every parent in the state of florida has a t right to send their kids to elementary school without having concepts like woke gender ideology jammed into their curriculum. parents have a right to have the kids go to school in the state of florida without having the school do things like quote transition their kids a gender to a different gender. giving them a different name. having them wear different clothes without the parents knowledge and consent. we went our schools to focus on teaching kids how to read. teach them how to write, science, history, if we do well on that and we master that we are going to be in great shape. we divert our attention away from ideology in the classroom, i can tell you we do well now and florida compared to when i was growing up.

i think with us holding the line on making sure we stay within the boundaries of education verse and indoctrination so many other jurisdictions around the country go in a different direction but you are going to see the results five, ten, 15 years from now t in terms of the achievement of our students. we are proud to be empowering parents. it was interesting when this came out, the immediate do these slogans they demagogue whatever. i expect that they basically do that with anything we do but almost anything we do there something said that's my fault. that's fine. these companies you think about it why would you want to get involved in some of the stuff? it's not really smart you alienate potential customers. i think the leftist -- might give them credit their smart about this. they know if they go to the voters in the state of florida and election campaign and say we want transgender is some top to first graders, they know parents are not buying that, okay?

in a state like florida we have a lot of elderly people they will think you're kind of weird that is what you think a first grader should be learning. they know this our political losers and they are. and so what i think they try to do is and browbeat some of these corporations thinking the corporate pressure may cause elected officials to back down and not stand for what is right. the may have enlisted walt dip disney corporation into this and disneyet demagogue did and said all this stuff. there are some people to set old man, and florida the media is so upset about this. now you have this massive company, they are bringing pressure to bear. the governor going to be able to withstand that? here i stand. we don't back down. [cheering] [applause] and so i made it very clear that in the state of florida my duties were to support and defend the people of the state of florida.

my duty and oath of office was not to subcontract out responsibility to a corporation based in burbank, california. that is not going to happen. they are not going to run the state. and we are going to make sure that we do what is right. so we slime signed the legislation. then they pledge their going to work to get it repealed and all this stuff. i think for a business perspective was a really dumb thing. they had markets and saw this happen. much more than the market as a whole. but put that aside. they put get massive subsidies in the state of florida. my view is as a corporation if you want to go woke, you have a right to say what you want to stand for. but you do not have the right to force me too subsidize that conduct. and so what m we did was, you he one company that had enjoyed subsidies unlike any other company in the state of florida'sr history. i would say you'd be

hard-pressed to find another situation like this anywhere in the united states. they had their own government they control in central florida. they were zipped for many applicable laws and their competitors and other companies in the state of florida had a follow up tax benefits and incur municipal debt for their project. what we said is say what you want, but we are not going to subsidize it. now we had the legislature active mobile end up happening is disney is not going have his own government. they're not going to be exempt from loss and i are going to pay their fair share of taxes. so i think all of those things given how difficult it was to even get kids in school. the fact parents were more engaged than ever before in the fact that florida was really the one standing up for the rights of parents and standing up for what education ought to be that we have had more families moved

to florida than ever before. we have had wealthy people move down, retirees is not like we've never had that but the number that are coming really from all over the country has been unprecedented for this is part of the reason why. another reason why unlike some states florida is unabashedly a law and order state. we are not going to let our cities burned down. we are not going to let criminals roam thehe street. we are not going to be letting them out with no bail or no cash bail. we are not going to be doing things like they elect these prosecutors than the prosecutors don't even prosecute cases. and then basically have the criminal element running the asylum that something totally unacceptable. two a years we had riots all across this country in florida i immediately called out the national guard. state law enforcement deployed to any potential spots in the state of florida. we work with our local law

enforcement agencies. you never saw me wilt for making short law enforcement folks that we have their back. a lot of people were protesting at the time, i understand that part a lot of communities wanted to take fundingy away from law enforcement. i think all you have seen is massive spikes in really serious crime since all that happened. so we never went down that road in florida. while they were defunding law enforcement we enacted for two years in a row 1000-dollar bonuses for every single sworn law enforcement officer in the entire state of florida and the firefighters and the emts. we also just enacted a new recruitment and retention program that tells all qualified law enforcement personnel around the country that if you are qualified to fill a position in florida and you are leaving some of these jurisdictions like seattle, chicago or you're not treated well, come to florida to

fill a position you get a $5000 signing bonus right off the top. because we support the mission. and i bring this up just because you talk to realtors in thek state of florida and they talk to people about why are you coming? we tend to think taxes at all. has there ever been a time in history when florida did not have a lower taxes at all these other states? we are l a low tax state we have the luxury of being able to do that we will continue to do that as long as i'm governor. that has always been though the covid thing's biggest schools are big, people would combo and say they are leaving areas they did not feel safe anymore. you can talk about having a good economy you can talk about having good schools you can talk about all the things we talk about so much that are so important. if you do not have safe communities none of that will amount to very much. i think people understand we had a pretty good run in this t country were crime was relatively low for more and have been previously.

that has all come tumbling down over the last few years. people want places that were to protect their freedom but will also protect their safety in the state of florida is one of those states. we will never waver from that responsibility. think another thing we have been able to do that people coming down but like those states do when i was elected governor in 2018 there more than 3000 have about 175,000 more republicans three and a half years later. [applause] i think that is telling you that in many respects the migration has been self-selecting. there are folks who understand

the problems of where they are leaving i look into florida's being a solution to those problems. one of things we've also done is we have state of florida is not can be overrun by woke ideology. it is just not when it happened. i think the awoke this is a cancer. i think it will destroy this country if it is able to get more of a foothold than it already has.re and here's the thing you can have differences in political judgments. i look back and look at a liberal from 30 or 40 years ago it would say they were wrong on taxes, they were wrong on crime per there were wrong on welfare, they were wrong on some of those things. i think i am right about that they were wrong. but those are issues we can have difference of opinion. you canre argue those and come o some resolution on them. but if they have an ideology

that tells me or expects me too believe that a man can get pregnant some of the other ridiculous things that you see coming out of this movement, that does not work for me. [applause] so what we did in florida as i signed legislation called stopping wrongs against our kids andua employees act to stop awoe active. what that does d is, it enables parents to make sure the schools are following state standards when it comes on the woke ideology that is trying to get more and more crept into the curriculum. i guess the new yorkers probably taken over the curriculum. one of have recourse please major corporation that are forced to undergo these ridiculous they call them trainings, i think are racially

discriminatory. so now we give them protection. think anyone could think so. governing argo statement that's very, very important. there has not been a single jurisdiction that has gone awoke on any of these issues, school closures, crime, all of this stuff that has succeeded per the qualitysu of life has been dramatically diminished. unruly society itself continues to decay. the woke ideology is a form of cultural w marxism. they are trying to tear at the fabric of our society. they went to race our history they want to take down statues and teddy roosevelt, abraham lincoln, take george washington same off the schools in santo francisco. all these things to try to delegitimize the founding principles of our country and basically impose their ideology

as a foundation governing principles ofci our society bute will mount that happen in the state of florida. now when you stand up against the, just so everyone understands you face a lot of blowback. most people in our society reject awoke his wholesale think it's odd when you're doing some of the stuff. but it's got a strong foothold in many elite institutions in media, and big tech, and universities in the federal bureaucracy. all in all down thend line. what i found is when you're standing up for the truth they are going to come at you. they are going to fling arrows at you. but if you stand your ground and you're sounding for the right thing people understand what is true and what isan not. an army of people that will be with youhr through thick and thn the minute you show them your willing to fight for them. then minute you show them your willing to stand up for what is right when it is not easy

because so many elected officials are trying to say the right thing the minute they get blowback they run for the hills. but we have done is we have stood in that arena. we have not back down we decided to deliver really big victories for the state of florida. all it really takes when you're battling these forces, have a little common sense and show little courage. if you do those things you can do very, very well up in the state of florida we are proud to what we've been able to accomplish. we have done more than anyone thought reasonably would have been possible. but i can slowly follow big on the fight we are in a big mission down there. we are going to keep the state of florida free, thank you. [cheering] >> thanks so much. thank you. thank you very much. god bless you all. thanks so much. [cheering] [applause] >> appreciate you.

[cheering] [applause] effects of jewish leadership conference also heard from former secretary of state mark mike pompeo spoke of it is park springs is a country's top diplomat at other topics including u.s. iran relations and china's influence in the indo pacific region. this is 30 minutes. [applause] thankk you. i assume all those cheers worked for me. i'm sure no introduction of sita and will give you brief one. mike pompeo's g