Republican Ron DeSantis was elected Governor of Florida in a close election, besting Andrew Gillum. DeSantis is a Tea Party extremist who has pledged to continue Rick Scott’s ruinous policies towards the environment and education. His choice for Commissioner of Education is Richard Corcoran, Out-of-office speaker of the House, whose wife runs a charter school. Corcoran supports charters, vouchers, and every possible alternative to public schools. He sponsored legislation to award bonuses to teachers based on their high school SAT/ACT scores. He has no education experience.
The League of Women Voters of Florida published a strong statement opposing his nomination.
The League sent this letter to The State Board of Education:
Dear Chairwoman and State Board Members,
With the impending departure of Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart, the League of Women Voters of Florida reminds you that as members of the State Board of Education you not only have the opportunity, but a constitutional responsibility, to conduct a national search to find the person who is best suited to oversee Florida’s system of public education.
Article IX, Section 2 of the Constitution of Florida was overwhelmingly adopted by the people of Florida in 1998. That provision created the Board of Education, consisting of seven members serving staggered terms to oversee Florida’s system of free public schools.
By enacting that provision, the people of Florida made it clear in the Constitution that it is the Board of Education — not the Governor — that has the responsibility to appoint a Commissioner of Education. Further, the Board of Education members’ terms of office were purposely staggered to ensure that as governors change, the Florida education system would be insulated from the disruption caused by political patronage appointments of a Commissioner of Education.
At a minimum, Floridians expect you to carry out a due diligence process aimed at ensuring Florida’s students that an individual of the highest possible caliber oversees public education. We urge you to take this important duty seriously and not simply “rubber stamp” a politically motivated choice.
Under our state’s current constitution, the Governor retains input to the process by filling vacancies which occur as Board Members terms expire, however, the Board must carry out its constitutional duty and make appointments based upon merit, not political patronage. While members of the Board may ultimately concur with the recommendation of the incoming Governor regarding who to appoint, the Board of Education should decline to opt for an expedient political patronage selection.
In sum, the Board should be guided by the constitutional statement that imposes upon the State a “paramount duty” to make “adequate provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.” Included in such a paramount duty is the selection of the best person possible to lead the effort. Finding such a person mandates that the Board conduct a national search and not just grant perfunctory approval to a political patronage appointment.
Florida’s children deserve nothing less.
Patricia Brigham
President
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
This is consistent with the Trump-DeVos Model
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Agree. The placement of incompetent politticsl cronies in positions where they can undermine the public interest has become job one for Republicans.
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YES.
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This is hideous beyond words. Florida retains a far right wing Tea Party/libertarain type of governor who appoints a pro charter hack to Commissioner of Education. And his wife runs a charter school, isn’t that a conflict of interest? Nah, in charter cheerleader world, that’s an enhancement. Florida chooses to be a far right wing state and sends Rick Scott to the senate on top of everything else that is regressive, vicious and erosive of the commons and benefits the 99%.
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Paul Krugman: quote – But this may be no more than a respite. For whatever may happen to Donald Trump, his party has turned its back on democracy. And that should terrify you.
The fact is that the G.O.P., as currently constituted, is willing to do whatever it takes to seize and hold power. And as long as that remains true, and Republicans remain politically competitive, we will be one election away from losing democracy in America.” end quote
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YES. Perhaps the “right” has been always one election away from becoming publicly, and very dangerously, corrupt, but have been historically held at bay by 1) radio and TV outlets which have NOT endlessly offered up a hate/fear filled view of truth and 2) the NOT dumbing down of public school curricula over years bent to an ‘accountabilty’ where courses like geography, history, civics, social studies and government are strategically pushed aside in the name of getting higher math and literacy scores.
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The next four years will be another “bleak house” for education in Florida. We can expect more suppression of democracy and profiteering.
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Very few are willing to press the media—–not so much on the actual issues—-as in how important those issues are, and how much more thoroughly they should be reported—–before these effing bozos like DeSantis casually announce–oh, by the way—we are going to clobber public education with corporate fixes, and we should thank the media for not bothering to prepare you for what will happen if you elect candidate X. It just was not all that interesting to them……and we thank them for that lack of interest.
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The rich get richer; the poor get poorer … our young will face huge inequities. GOP truly is made up of GREEDY OPPRESSIVE P*****.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/americas-children-face-income-inequality-unseen-in-generations/
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Welcome to the club, Floridians… your friends in NH know how you feel! But we also found and the way out! Two years ago NH’s newly elected GOP Governor appointed a home-schooling businessman to head the State’s schools and he, the Governor, and the Tea Party Republicans introduced a raft of bills from the ALEC playbook, bad mouthed our public schools— which, BTW, were among the best in the country if one believes test scores are the ultimate metric— and refused to fully fund the formula to provide $$$ for schools. In November, the GOP lost control of the House and Senate at the ballot box. Our state is now going to have a couple of years to get things back in order. With the recent referendum in your state restoring voting rights to felons who have served their sentences you should be able to get some pro-Government pro-public education State representatives in 2020. Who knows… you might even be able to conduct an election that counts everyone’s votes!
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