By Marjorie Jackson
Just as school bells across the country begin ringing for another semester of class time again, Florida conservatives are running another victory lap around the school yard.
Tuesday night’s Florida primaries handed victories to 25 of the 30 school board candidates backed by the state’s Governor Ron DeSantis (R), and 35 of 49 candidates endorsed by school board-challenging 1776 Project PAC, flipping several school boards to have conservative majorities.
“It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work,” Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, told The Washington Stand. “It’s a reflection of Florida citizens’ anger at the school boards in red counties and a red state acting like they live in blue counties and blue states. A lot of these places very publicly and strongly pushed back on implementing the governor’s recommendations on masking for students and following the federal guidelines. This is a big part of why you’re seeing this big turnout right now.”
For several years, DeSantis has made headlines for being vocally against left-leaning ideologies being taught in the Florida education system. While his efforts have been dubbed by some mainstream outlets as waging a “war on education,” his ear towards those disgruntled with public education has made him a popular choice among voters and parents, and groups such as Moms for Liberty. A proponent of school choice, DeSantis has particularly vied against strict classroom COVID-19 masking policies, teaching LGBTQ+ curriculum to elementary-aged students, and critical race theory. With Americans leaving the public school system by the millions in recent years, DeSantis’s views on education have made him popular with conservatives since his election in 2019.
Read the full story at The Washington Stand!
