Former governor and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R-SC) criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R-FL) controversial education bill, claiming it does not go far enough on banning the topic of gender identity to elementary school students.
During a town hall stop in New Hampshire on Thursday, Haley said the bill, called the "Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act," needs to go further than the third grade to talk about gender identity and sexual education in the classroom.
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“Basically, what it said was you shouldn’t be able to talk about gender before third grade,” Haley said, according to Fox News. “I’m sorry, I don’t think that goes far enough. When I was in school, you didn’t have sex ed until seventh grade. And even then, your parents had to sign whether you could take the class. That’s a decision for parents to make,”
Haley, who announced her bid for the Republican nomination for president earlier this week, said she believes that talking about gender and sexuality is something that a parent should do with their children, not a public school.
“I think Ron’s been a good governor. I just think that third grade’s too young," Haley told the outlet. "We should not be talking to kids in elementary school about gender, period. And if you are going to talk to kids about it, you need to get the parents’ permission to do that. That is something between a parent and a child. That is not something that schools need to be teaching."
The bill, which bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, has been trashed by the left as an anti-LGBTQ piece of legislation that allegedly hinders free speech.
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DeSantis, who signed the bill last year, has seen his political stock rise since being elected governor in 2018. DeSantis recently won an easy reelection, which was one of many victories for Republicans in the Sunshine State during the 2022 midterm elections, even as the party under-performed elsewhere in the country.
Although he has not officially announced a bid for the White House, DeSantis is considered an early favorite alongside former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination next year.