Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reaffirmed conservative ideals regarding education, immigration and healthcare in an on-campus fireside chat with former U.S. Secretary of State and Hoover Institution Director Condoleezza Rice on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciated the chance to see two influential leaders participate in constructive dialogue in front of Stanford students and alumni,\u201d event attendee Colin Weis \u201928 said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could have the best Constitution in the world, you could have the best Declaration of Independence in the world \u2014 these things don\u2019t run on autopilot,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cThey require every generation of Americans to defend these principles, to apply those principles faithfully, to defend freedom.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeSantis also defended Florida\u2019s primary education system, calling it \u201cthe most robust in the country\u201d while criticizing California\u2019s. He pointed to Florida\u2019s successful initiative<\/a> to remove cell phones from classrooms, a measure that led other states to follow suit. <\/p>\n DeSantis attributed California\u2019s bottom 12 ranking<\/a> in educational performance to teacher unions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome of [the union\u2019s] resolutions have nothing to do with education. It\u2019s like validating every far-left [ideology],\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cThat\u2019s not their role to indoctrinate. The goal is to educate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n DeSantis also touched on higher education, acknowledging the various pathways to career success, ranging from university education to vocational training. He lauded Florida\u2019s latest initiative to reform the \u201cMarxist-communist\u201d New College<\/a> by bringing in conservative reformers as a \u201cmassive program\u201d for speech and debate.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to see a variety of viewpoints. I want to see people\u2019s orthodoxies challenged,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cBut in reality, the muscle memory has gone in one direction on the left for so long that we [have] to consciously try to figure out how you are going to do things.\u201d<\/p>\n