DeSantis-backed school board candidates face off in Florida
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is not on the ballot Tuesday, but his education agenda is.
DeSantis is to throw one’s weight around once again behind the province candidates for school board across the state. While the seats are officially nonpartisan, the Republican governor has endorsed 23 school board candidates on Tuesday’s ballot in 14 Florida counties — and he has his eye on 14 incumbents to oust.
One board where conservatives hope to win a majority is in Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Historically known as one of the state’s largest swing counties, Pinellas has moved to the right in recent years. In a pattern playing out across the state, conservative activists there have equated certain teaching materials with pornography and labeled educators as “caregivers.”
Much of the political debate in the races has focused on ‘parental rights’ at a time when both parties are fighting to win over the embattled voting bloc of suburban women. The modern parent-rights movement was born out of opposition to pandemic measures in schools and is now fueled by complaints about classroom instruction on gender identity and systemic racism.
Florida’s new school board members will take office as traditional public schools face dramatic enrollment declines, with districts large and small grappling with whether to close schools and what to do with their real estate holdings once campuses are shuttered. School districts are often among the largest employers and landowners in their communities.
Three challengers in Pinellas have received the backing of DeSantis and the local chapter of the conservative group Mothers for Freedom.
If elected, candidates Stacy Geier, Danielle Marolf and Erika Picard would join the two current members endorsed by Moms for Liberty, forming a majority on the nine-seat board.
“He knows who the true conservative is in my race,” Marolf said after winning DeSantis’ endorsement. “My values are really about protecting children.”
But some in Pinellas say Parent rights activists have gone too farlike school board candidate Katie Blaxberg, a registered Republican who finds herself on the opposite side of Moms for Liberty. Blaxberg is running against Geier for an open seat on the board.
Activists affiliated with Moms for Liberty have smeared Blaxberg online, posting information about her children and her home. The chapter’s president did not respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press.
“The misinformation that has been spread by this group of people and the intent to … sow distrust in our teachers,” Blaxberg said, “people are fed up with it.”
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Kate Payne is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.