DeSantis Signs Legislation to Support Fatherhood

BUCK: I’m gonna take a minute here to talk about something positive that is going on, positive steps, building things up, making things better in this country.

As feels like is often the case these days, that directs our attention toward the great state of Florida where Governor Ron DeSantis has signed legislation, signed a bill now a law, HB7065 which will direct millions of dollars to support men in the role of fathers, helping people be dads, assigning case managers to help fathers find jobs, assigning case managers to help dads transition if they had to serve time in prison, helping out dads.

Isn’t this an important and remarkable thing? Here you go.

DESANTIS: I’ll be signing HB765, which helps support — 7065 — which helps support fathers and encourage their active participation in their children’s lives. Not only are they good initiatives, this comes with funding that will help make those initiatives effective. So, this bill is tied to $70 million in funding to provide a wide array of family and youth support through out Department of Children and Families, as well as our Department of Juvenile Justice, and they will be working very closely to support fatherhood throughout our state.

BUCK: We have a fatherlessness crisis in this country, Clay, and all the social science points to how that affects crime, drug use, dropouts, all of it.

CLAY: Yeah. There’s a great quote. One of the people that at that law being signed is Tony Dungy, who is a former Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneer coach.

A lot of NFL fans will know Tony Dungy well. He lives in the state of Florida now. One of the beneficiaries of that $70 million will be Tony Dungy’s “All Pro Dad”, and he spoke at this event and said, I asked how do these young boys, 19, 20, 21-year-olds end up in prison? This is a quote from Tony Dungy.

And he said the data reflects it’s not socioeconomic. It’s not racial. It’s not education. It’s none of that. Ninety-five percent of these boys didn’t grow up with their dad. And the data reflects that if you do not have a father or a father figure in your house, that boys in particular are particularly susceptible ill influences in their communities.

And so when a father is not present, when a father figure is not present in the household, 95% — it’s a staggering stat that Tony Dungy shared at the DeSantis press conference — 95% of the boys, young kids in prison there, are there because they may not have had a dad in their house.

So that’s money that’s being well spent. Credit to Ron DeSantis and Tony Dungy for coming together yesterday for that in Florida.