Jennifer Canady's stolen "teacher" valor, part 1: she will rule you with Lakeland Christian School's "statement of faith"

The GOP Florida House candidate is subject to the same dogma and oath that forced out Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz. Don't expect her to show the same courage or integrity as Bill.

Correction: Charles Canady has served as Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court three times; but he was replaced as chief in March 2022 by current Chief Justice Carlos Muniz.

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Now that her political fate depends on Democrats and NPAs in an open primary, Republican state house candidate Jennifer Canady is afraid to tell voters that she works for Lakeland Christian School.

Her mailers just say “teacher.” She won’t even say “private” — much less “Christian” or LCS.

She wants you to think she’s a public school teacher so she can take advantage of public school teacher popularity without doing any of the morally hard things that poorly paid public school teachers do every day. And she’s married to the viciously anti-public education chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court. (More on that in Part 2.)

Public school teachers teach all kids who come, no matter who you are. Jennifer Canady does not. Jennifer does not suffer for her kids or her avocation. She teaches only kids who can pay expensive tuition, who can be got rid of, and who can submit to LCS’ rigid “Statement of Faith.”

That’s her right and choice; but stealing the valor of real teachers, who do the real work under great duress, for her own selfish political benefit, is gross and immoral and weak.

It speaks very poorly of the personal character that the LCS “statement of faith” produces.

A deeply compromised and dishonest candidate

Moreover, Canady does not tell voters that LCS will purge her as an employee and member of its community if she violates the “Statement of Faith” with her civil behavior and legislative votes.

It just did precisely that to very popular Lakeland Mayor Bill Mutz because he read a PRIDE proclamation. Canady’s public service is deeply compromised by the private dogma of her employer.

You really should go read the LCS statement of faith linked to above. (I’ll screenshot it below, too). If Canady wins, you can expect it to govern you, too, through her.

LCS has already shown what it does to affiliated civic leaders who cross it. And there is no reason to believe, at all, that Jennifer Canady has any of Bill Mutz’s moral courage and integrity. She won’t even answer questions.

There is no chance — none — she will choose you, her constituent, over LCS Head of School Mike Sligh and his vindictive board. If there’s conflict between my public interests as her constituent and Lakeland Christian’s “statement of faith,” Canady will submit to LCS.

I have zero interest in the LCS board having any power over my life in any way. I do not want to live in a petty local LCS dictatorship. So I have no interest in handing Jennifer Canady any official power.

“Are you capable of taking a vote that would violate LCS’ statement of faith?”

At the forum I attended, Canady ducked all serious questions in person, as I documented here — including whether she plans to vote to criminalize all 80,000 women who end pregnancies in Florida each year and continue to impose forced birth on rape and incest victims in Florida.

And Canady has completely ignored the handful of questions I’ve emailed her —including these questions about the LCS purge of Bill Mutz.

• Do you agree with Lakeland Christian's decision to purge Bill Mutz?

• If so, which of Bill Mutz' principles, specifically, do you disagree with?

• If elected, are you capable of taking a vote that would violate LCS's statement of faith?

See full email below:

The last question is the most important. It’s the reason I’m writing about this. I’m quite laissez-faire about private education when it’s not an open scam, like most voucher schools are.

If you want your child taught privately that the Earth is 6,000 years old and evolution is a lie, I’m not inclined to interfere. I’ve never had a single hard word for Lakeland Christian — beyond a little “cool kid table” snark about Will Harrell. In fact, I had a reader just a couple days ago criticize me for “always giving LCS a pass.” I did not know Jennifer Canady existed until she started running for office.

But if you, LCS, intend to govern me and my family politically in civil society with your “statement of faith,” do not expect me to silently comply. And I’m far less afraid to publicly assert my own statements of faith than Jennifer Canady is hers.

Canady should publicly own the LCS “statement or faith” and describe how it will dictate her behavior as an elected official; or she should reject it. Right now, she’s doing the opposite with a double dip of abject cowardice, slathered in nepotism. (Her husband, Charles Canady, is a former Congressman and House impeachment manager of Bill Clinton, and current Florida Supreme Court Justice, where he is three-time Chief Justice; and Charles Canday’s dad ran Lawton Chiles’ campaigns.)

With her cowardly silence and “teacher” mailers, Canady is both:

• Dishonoring LCS’s statement of faith by refusing to say how it will direct her in public life.

• Trying to hoodwink Dem/NPA/RINO voters with the stolen valor and popularity and suffering of real teachers who teach all kids.

That’s a gross statement of faith.

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In part 2, we’ll lay out how Jennifer Canady’s husband Charles helped destroy local school districts and upheld the most anti-teacher, anti-public education law in Florida history. And how the first bullet on the statement of faith below complicates and deepens the already blatant nepotism of the Canady candidacy.

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