On Thursday Florida became the first U.S. state to adopt ‘The Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education’, an outline of principles written by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative organization that produced Project 2025, which was presented a blueprint for the second Trump administration.
Florida’s Commissioner of Education, Anastasios Kamoutsas, said of the ratification and adoption of the Phoenix Declaration: “I don’t know how anyone can disagree with parental choice and responsibility, curriculum transparency,” two principles listed in the Declaration.
As WJXT Channel 4 in Jacksonville reported, critics say the Heritage Foundation’s Phoenix Declaration is “a thinly veiled political agenda to dismantle public education and privatize it, and install a conservative ideology.”
As seen below at a state Board of Education meeting in Crawfordville, one Floridian referred to the declaration as: “indoctrination dressed up in pretty words.” (The declaration advocates for teaching children to “seek the good, true and beautiful” and for students to “achieve their full, God-given potential.”
This should alarm everyone.
On Thursday, Florida, by unanimous vote, became the first state in the country to adopt “The Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education.”
It was written by the Heritage Foundation, the same group behind Project 2025.THIS IS INDOCTRINATION pic.twitter.com/X1779SYmro
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) November 17, 2025
The Heritage Foundation’s Phoenix Declaration also promotes “cultural transmission,” which requires students to “learn about America’s founding principles and roots in the broader Western and Judeo-Christian traditions.”
The Phoenix Declaration drafting committee included Ryan Walters, the former Oklahoma Secretary of Education who advocated for teaching the Christian Bible in public schools, and proposed to request the citizenship status of children enrolling in public school, among other controversial mandates.
[Note: A study released by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) during Walters’s tenure in 2025 found Oklahoma ranked near the bottom nationally: 47th in fourth-grade reading, 48th in eighth-grade reading, 44th in fourth-grade math, and 45th in eighth-grade math. Governor Kevin Stitt (R) responded to the study by replacing three of his appointees to the Oklahoma State Board of Education, which Walters led.]
Progressive political pundit Richard Angwin replied to the news, writing: “Florida’s adoption of the Heritage Foundation’s Phoenix Declaration isn’t education reform, it’s a Trojan horse for conservative indoctrination and school privatization that guts public education for the sake of ideology.”
Responses from MAGA adherents asserted instead that the new doctrine is a corrective to alleged liberal indoctrination and took offense at those objecting to the Christian underpinnings of the agenda. “Apparently you have a problem with positive Christian influences,’ one wrote, echoing others.
After the Florida Board of Education unanimous voted for the ratification and adoption of the Phoenix Declaration, without providing details regarding the implementation of the guidelines, retired teacher Marihelen Wheeler suggested that the state should give teachers raises before adding to their workload.
Wheeler told CBS News: “Talk to teachers about what you’re discussing now.” She added: “I don’t know how often you include teachers, but you’ve got to do it because you’re not going to be able to keep Florida teachers with this kind of addition to the teacher’s load.”