The Florida Department of Education has created a new position for an administrator to collaborate with and encourage rightwing school boards. This appointment is intended to cement and expand Governor Ron DeSantis’s control over school boards. DeSantis has endorsed school board candidates to make sure his ideology—and none other—is taught in the public schools.

Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinel wrote:

A new office in the Florida Department of Education aims to “facilitate partnerships with district leaders,” but the director’s first months of work show interest in meeting mostly with conservative school board members, records show, including Moms for Liberty members and those endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“We would be happy to meet with the Conservative Coalition of School Board Members as a group to explore ways that our efforts may align,” wrote Terry Stoops, the new director, to a Volusia County School Board member on April 23. “If you hold regular meetings and would like us to participate, please let me know.”

In another email, he shared his views of the previous night’s Orange County School Board meeting with Alicia Farrant, a Moms for Liberty member elected to the board in November.

“I watched some of the very misguided public comment at last night’s school board meeting. I just wanted to pass along a note to thank you for serving on the board and standing up for families,” Stoops wrote her on May 10.

“Thank you so much! I’m proud to represent our community and be a voice for many who feel voiceless,” responded Farrant, who has pushed for the school district to remove library books she finds offensive.

Stoops is the director of the education department’s new Office of Academically Successful and Resilient Districts, a job he started in April, according to his LinkedIn page. Stoops spent nearly two decades in North Carolina mostly working for the conservative John Locke Foundation, with a focus on education policy.

The Florida education department’s press office did not respond to emails asking questions about the new office and Stoops’ salary. He is not listed in the state payroll database on the governor’s office website.

In North Carolina, Stoops drafted what would become a framework for a North Carolina “parents’ bill of rights,” legislation that like Florida’s was criticized as anti-LGBTQ, apushed for more school choice options, such as charter schools and school vouchers.

His first months on the job in Florida showed meetings with board members and advocacy groups aligned to DeSantis, according to emails and his calendar obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project and shared with the Orlando Sentinel.

The new office shouldn’t be working only with those with certain political views, said Stephana Ferrell, an Orange County mother and one of the project’s founders.

“This department seems formed for the sole purpose of ensuring the DeSantis agenda is worked into policy,” Ferrell said. “It is using tax payer funds in a very deliberate, political way.”

In Orange, for example, Stoops reached out to Farrant but none of the other seven board members, Ferrell said. The same was true in Volusia, she said, where two conservative members got emails but the other three did not.

DeSantis wants to control what is taught in every school and college class. He is a dangerous man.