• Americans for Prosperity Florida (AFP-FL) released its “Florida Freedom Agenda” on Tuesday with a strong focus on education reform moving forward in the Florida House.
• The group says it will push for education reforms that empower students and families, and allows families to direct their child’s funding to the schools that best serve them.
• Top priorities also include regulatory reform, protection of free speech, and support for innovative solutions to reform Florida’s regulatory environment.

Pledging to put the full might of their powerful grass roots organization to work to help pass education reform, high-tech health care investment, a regulatory overhaul and protect free speech, Americans for Prosperity Florida (AFP-FL) released its “Florida Freedom Agenda” on Tuesday, and called on Florida legislative leaders to help them get their priorities passed. The grass-roots group is highly influential in Florida’s state government, particularly among conservatives.

AFP-FL’s “Florida Freedom Agenda” calls for continuing last year’s educational reforms championed by Governor Ron DeSantis that recognize parental rights, and takes the position that parents and students are best equipped to make their own decisions about their educational needs. The group says it will push for educational reforms that empower students and families to flip the funding paradigm through the use of House Speaker Paul Renner’s recently announced Universal Education Savings Account plan.

The group, which has long championed the plan, said in a press release that it will allow families to direct their child’s funding to the schools, courses and real-world learning opportunities that best serve them. The organization will also advance entrepreneurial reforms to provide a wide variety of educational environments and services, allowing students and families to customize their education and reduce standardization.

“The ‘Florida Freedom Agenda’ outlines how our team of grassroots advocates plans to make the voices of students, families, patients, workers, and business owners heard this legislative session,” said AFP-FL State Director Skylar Zander. “This agenda will ensure that the Sunshine State can continue to pioneer market-based policies to remove barriers to success and empower all Floridians to achieve their potential.”

Common sense regulatory reform, and protections for free speech and free expression round out AFP-FL’s top priorities for the upcoming session. The group says it will work to support “innovative and bottom-up approaches to reforming Florida’s regulatory environment, correct government over-regulation with market-based solutions, eliminate unnecessary licensing fees, and expand licensing reciprocity with other states will protect Florida’s businesses and make it easier for workers and businesses to thrive.”

On free speech and free expression, AFP-FL says it will pursue a consistent strategy focusing on the free discovery and dissemination of ideas, while continuing to support efforts to protect free speech and discussion so that the best ideas and practices may flourish, further enabling better decision-making.

The legislative session starts March 7, 2023.