Ask Sen. Mike Fasano why Florida needs a law mandating an American flag in every school classroom, and he makes an unusual case. He says he was stirred by reading about University of Central Florida students who successfully petitioned to put flags in their classrooms, and he says the requirement won't cost much because he thinks most every K-12 classroom already has one.
So, if universities already can use student fees for flags and most public schools already have them anyway, what's the point?
"This is something I felt I wanted to do," said Fasano, a New Port Richey Republican. "I believe it's important that we honor our U.S. flag."
Fasano's bill goes so far as to prescribe that "the flag must be at least 2 feet by 3 feet and must be properly displayed in a suitable location in the classroom," though it doesn't say how violators would be punished. For the record, a Senate analysis puts the cost at $2.8-million, not a dime of which Fasano would have the state pay. Instead, he thinks the campuses and schoolhouses can raise the money on their own - under state mandate, of course. And he would have universities take the money out of student fees even if students opposed the expense.
That Fasano's bill managed to emerge from the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday is no doubt a product of the pedestrian politics surrounding it. After all, what lawmaker wants to oppose the flag in an election year? But the truth is that schools don't need Fasano to tell them how to honor their country, and people don't have to lack patriotism to see such shallow stunts for what they are.
