Maria Buenano remains listed in January of 2022 as the Social Media Manager of the Florida Citizens Alliance (FLCA), though according to her LinkedIn profile, she left FLCA in October of 2021. Buenano also served as the past Director of Partnerships for Young Americans against Socialism. In 2022, the FLCA office team also includes Keith Flaugh, Rick Stevens, and Domine Clemons.
Florida Citizens Alliance on Climate Change
In an Education Week article, Keith Flaugh, listed as the FLCA Managing Director and self-described FLCA activist, is quoted as saying, “Man-made global warming [is] presented as fact when it is still very much a theory!” He’s also cited as remarking “Books that treat evolution as a proven science are discriminating and bully children and families against their religious beliefs.”
The Daily Beast writes about a conversation with the Manatee and Sarasota chapter leader of the Alliance, Steve Vernon. He describes how, ‘the Alliance’s members began line-reading school textbooks for violations of their beliefs, creating carefully detailed reports on how many times, and in what context, elementary and high school students were learning about rising seas, or melting ice in Antarctica. “Unfortunately, what it’s become is indoctrination and not education. That’s our major problem,”
Vernon goes on to speak about the FLCA impact on the Florida legislature saying, “The legislators became less fearful of thinking differently, of not being so establishment oriented,” Vernon told me, noting that ideas that had once been politically unsavory could now be effective tools to raise campaign funding. “The idea that climate change wasn’t man-made was something politicians could now take out on the campaign trail,”
Additionally, the Miami New Times notes that for the Florida Citizens Alliance, teaching climate science in the classroom is a target. In 2018 the FLCA supported legislation that allows Florida residents to challenge “virtually any piece of material taught in public schools.” The same article reviews a number of positions advocated by the FLCA and notes that two Alliance members, Rick Stevens and Keith Flaugh, at times advise Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
In 2019, State Senator Dennis Baxley introduced a bill at the suggestion of the FLCA to allow school districts to teach alternatives to what he considers “controversial” theories like climate change and evolution. Baxley’s legislation is designed to create doubt in the well-established facts of global climate change in an effort to control the climate change policy conversation.
The Alliance also maintains supportive links with like-minded organizations, including the Heartland Institute. The Heartland Institute is well-known for its climate change skepticism and denial.
Florida Citizens Alliance on Current Issues
The FLCA opposes COVID-19 vaccine mandates. They also draw false equivalencies between vaccinated an unvaccinated individuals.
For political advantage, the Alliance already exploits imagined fears revolving around Critical Race Theory. Now it has decided that Critical Gender Theory is a threat to our children. As they say, “Not only does this blatantly undermine parents, but the ideologies are nonscientific and perverted at best. Critical Gender Theory and its applications are subversive and have no place in K-12 classrooms.” They go on to remark, “Sadly, today’s schools are not filling students’ heads with good and true things. Instead, students are exposed to a deceitful and inappropriate worldview.”
See Also
Ron DeSantis
Jim DeMint
Climate of Denial