Casey DeSantis pushes for parental rights in Iowa

JOHNSTON — Praising Gov. Kim Reynolds’ policies in education and parental involvement, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis said her husband, Ron DeSantis, would bring the same energy and priorities to the White House.

Casey DeSantis spoke Thursday at a campaign event near Des Moines, moderated by Reynolds, as part of the launch of “Mamas for DeSantis,” a group to mobilize mothers and grandmothers who support Ron DeSantis’s bid for the Republican nomination for president.

“We’re mobilizing millions, millions of moms and grandmothers across the United States of America in defense of the innocence of our children,” Casey DeSantis said. “A lot of bad things are going on, and I can tell you with what Gov. DeSantis has done, he will lead the charge and he will clean house.”

Policies intended to increase school transparency and give parents more involvement in their children’s education have been a key issue in the Republican presidential primary, with Republicans taking aim at what they call indoctrination in schools and inappropriate subject matters in curriculum and school library books.

DeSantis said the COVID-19 pandemic gave parents a window into what their children were being taught at school, and said some did not approve of the curriculum being taught. She said the focus on those issues during her husband’s last campaign for Florida governor had broad appeal to independent voters that led to his outsized victory.

“He won women by nearly 10 points, the first Republican governor in nearly 50 years to do that,” she said. “These policies of standing up for families, standing up for moms and dads and standing up in defense of the innocence of our children, it resonates across parties,” she said.

‘Parents rights’ advanced by Republicans

Reynolds also made “Parents Matter” a key slogan of her 2022 re-election campaign, promising to give parents more input in their children’s education and allow parents to use state dollars to send their children to private schools.

Reynolds signed into law a bill that prohibits teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary school, bans certain books from school libraries and requires parental permission for children to change their name or pronouns used at school.

Parts of that law were similar to one DeSantis signed in 2022, called by critics the “don’t say gay” law, which banned discussions about gender identity or sexual orientation through third grade. That ban was extended this year through grade 12, with some exceptions.

Those policies were lobbied for in Iowa by Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that advocates for policies that restrict LGBTQ topics in education and increase school curriculum transparency.

Missy Collins, a Perry resident and one of many members of Moms for Liberty at the event, said the issues of parental involvement appeal especially to women, who often have a bigger hand in their children’s education.

“We’re seeing our kids growing up in the school system and we want to make sure that they’re on the right path,” she said. “We want to make sure that our religious values are protected, and that we’re not sending them off to school to be taught things that we don’t feel like we would teach them at home.”

School choice applauded

Casey DeSantis also applauded Reynolds for passing a law that will eventually allow any Iowa parent to use their child’s full state public school allocation to attend private school. The program received more than 29,000 applications last month, double what was budgeted by state officials.

“You should not be destined to the ZIP code that you live in for your opportunities to live up to your God-given potential,” DeSantis said. “It shouldn't be up to the parents to decide what education they think are best for their children, and government should get out of the way.”

Ron DeSantis got his own expansion of private school assistance, signing a law this year that made a preexisting Florida school choice program universal.

Reynolds said Iowa’s program will increase education opportunities across the state, and it was crucial to the goal of giving parents a choice in their children’s education.

“We want to elevate all of education, and we believe that competition will do that,” she said. “I’m a product of a public school, I raised our three daughters at a public school, (my) grandchildren are going there, but parents ultimately should be the decision-makers.”