The Freedom From Religion Foundation is sounding the alarm about the Florida Board of Education’s recent adoption of the Heritage Foundation’s “Phoenix Declaration.”

This document is a vague but ideologically loaded framework that threatens the integrity of public education and opens the door to religiously motivated political interference in Florida’s schools. On Nov. 13, the Florida Board of Education unanimously voted to ratify and adopt the “Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education.” The declaration was authored by the Heritage Foundation, the group behind Project 2025, which aims to dismantle civil rights protections, weaken the federal government and promote religious favoritism. Several of the declaration’s principles echo Project 2025’s proposals to expand school vouchers, promote religious instruction with public funds, and curtail diversity and civil rights efforts.

“On its surface, the Phoenix Declaration wraps itself in pleasant language about truth, virtue and goodness,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Underneath, it is a Trojan horse for Christian nationalist ideology and a blueprint for undermining public education in favor of conservative religious priorities.”

The declaration includes several statements that appear benign on their face but reveal a deeper ideological agenda when read in context.

On “objective truth” and morality, the document states: “Students should learn that there is objective truth and that it is knowable. Science courses must be grounded in reality, not ideological fads. Students should learn that good and evil exist, and that human beings have the capacity and duty to choose good.”

Language like this has been routinely used by Christian nationalist groups to cast evidence-based teaching about gender, sexuality and modern science as “ideological fads,” while elevating religious beliefs about morality as neutral “truth.”

On cultural transmission, the declaration asserts: “True progress comes only by building on what has been learned and achieved in the past. Students should therefore learn about America’s founding principles and roots in the broader Western and Judeo-Christian traditions.”

This explicitly frames public education through a sectarian lens. The United States is not founded on “Judeo-Christian traditions” as a governing principle, and public schools cannot privilege one religious heritage over the nation’s actual pluralistic history.

On civics and patriotism, it promotes the “revival” of rituals such as the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem, stating: “Our shared civic rituals, such as the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem, should be respected and revived.”

Public schools already teach civics and many include patriotic observances while also respecting students’ constitutional right not to participate. Positioning these rituals as in need of a revival echoes the Heritage Foundation’s broader narrative that public schools have abandoned patriotism, a claim unsupported by evidence and used to justify its proposed ideological interventions.

Multiple citizens attended the Florida Board of Education’s meeting to object, calling the Phoenix Declaration “white Christian nationalist ideology.”

“It’s clear that the Phoenix Declaration is not an educational framework. It is a political document shrouded in inspirational language,” says Gaylor. “Public schools exist to educate, not to indoctrinate students into the Heritage Foundation’s preferred religious or political ideology.”

Several drafting committee members and signatories of the declaration represent organizations openly committed to religious education, Christian nationalism or the dismantling of secular public institutions. Their involvement reveals the project’s true intention: reshaping public schools to reflect conservative religious priorities and undermining the constitutional precept that the government must remain neutral on matters of religion.

“Every child in Florida deserves a high-quality, fully funded, secular public education,” adds Gaylor. “They deserve science grounded in evidence, history grounded in facts and civics grounded in constitutional principles, not a religiously infused political program that uses schools as a battleground for culture war agendas.”

FFRF urges Floridians to report any constitutional violations that arise as the Phoenix Declaration begins to influence curriculum, policy and teacher training in Florida. FFRF will continue to monitor implementation and stand up for the rights of Florida’s students and families to receive an education free from religious coercion and manipulation.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 42,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including more than 2,000 members and a chapter in Florida. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

The post FFRF alarmed after Fla. adoption of Heritage Foundation’s anti-education framework appeared first on Freedom From Religion Foundation.