Ron DeSantis vows to get ‘political apparatus involved’ in Florida school board races
Ron DeSantis. Image via Fox News Channel

Ron Desantis - Fox News
Governor will play in school board races.

Gov. Ron DeSantis returned to the Fox News Channel Saturday night in a segment taped the evening before, but with a message relevant to the political cycle to come.

On “Unfiltered with Dan Bongino,” DeSantis vowed to turn his “political apparatus” against Republican school board candidates who oppose his educational reforms.

“We’re not going to support any Republican candidate for school board who supports Critical Race Theory in all 67 counties or supports mandatory masking of school children,” DeSantis told Bongino.

School board races in Florida are nonpartisan.

“Local elections matter. We are going to get the Florida political apparatus involved so we can make sure there’s not a single school board member who supports Critical Race Theory,” DeSantis added.

On June 10, the State Board of Education will convene in Jacksonville to vote on a proposal that attacks Critical Race Theory and other deconstructions of traditional civics curricula.

The proposal will ban defining American history as “something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” Teachers will also be forbidden to “share their personal views or attempt to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”

DeSantis addressed that also, making it clear that Richard Corcoran was his proxy in this key matter.

“Next week, I have my Commissioner of Education going to the Board of Education banning it … banning any departure from accurate history and following our standards. This is something we’ve got to stay on the forefront of,” DeSantis told Bongino.

The Governor has offered regular denunciations of critical race theory in previous stops.

“You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig,” DeSantis said in Pensacola on May 24. “If we have to play whack a mole all over the state stopping this critical race theory, we will do it.”

The Governor has described schools as “indoctrination factories” and has even likened critical race theory to “Marxism.”

“Critical Race Theory is basically teaching people to hate our country, hate each other,” DeSantis said on Hannity in March. “It’s divisive, and it’s basically an identity politics version of Marxism.”

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


28 comments

  • Timothy Dolphgren

    June 6, 2021 at 2:41 am

    He’s right. Same for anyone else pushing equity/diversity/inclusivity.

    I saw a comment from someone else that said it best, it’s like saying “We’re not communists, we’re marxists!”

    At the end of the day anyone pushing these ideologies is a racist and has to be stopped.

    • Jeff Morris

      June 6, 2021 at 6:17 pm

      On of the most racist comments on this issue

  • Ron Ogden

    June 6, 2021 at 7:24 am

    DeSantis is correct. Enough has been said about CRT to allow reasonable people to conclude it is both a fraud as a theory of history and a failure as a political effort. Be done with it and get on with the business of building a society where an individual’s personal character and responsibility are what matter in relationships.

    • Jeff Morris

      June 6, 2021 at 6:18 pm

      The truth isn’t racist. Why are you afraid of the truth?

  • Tyrone Williams

    June 6, 2021 at 8:29 am

    I sure don’t want religious nuts like Corcoran and moron-authoritarians like DeathSantis teaching kids their fascist, bigoted versions of history. It’s on, MF’ers!

  • Ocean Joe

    June 6, 2021 at 9:35 am

    Uncle Ho would be proud, having his re-education camps copied by Desantis.
    Don’t be fooled, it’s not so much about “white” washing American history, it’s more an effort to recruit younger Republican voters from a demographic which is currently rejecting them and to silence opposing views.

  • George

    June 6, 2021 at 10:06 am

    Under these guidelines, how will the 3/5 clause be taught? How will the Indian Removal Act be taught? How will Plessy v Ferguson be taught? How will segregation and Jim Crow be taught? How will voting rights being restricted only to white, male, land owners be taught? How will the Missouri Compromise or the Compromise of 1850 be taught? How will the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestory during WWII be taught? Will these topics now be ignored in history classes because they are not based upon the Declaration of Independence?

    Concentrating on the Declaration of Independence as the founding document to be taught from is disingenuous at best. The Declaration carried no force of law. The Articles of Confederation did carry force of law before the drafting of the Constitution of 1789. The Constitution of 1789 does carry the force of law.

    While I understand that many people would like to ignore the bad parts of our history, they are a part of our history none the less. How will they be taught under these new guidelines?

    • Mark

      June 6, 2021 at 11:52 am

      All those subjects were taught when I was in school in the 50’s and 60’s. Where were you that American and World history was not taught?

    • Cary

      June 6, 2021 at 1:17 pm

      Those legal, court tested revisions in the Constitution will be taught by including the historically accurate facts that preceded their change…. NOT BY THE HISTORICALLY INACCURATE AND FAILED MARXIST, SOCIALIST AGENDA!!!

      • Frankie M.

        June 6, 2021 at 1:46 pm

        So to get politics out of our school curriculum we need to put politicians on our school boards? (Not that critical race theory is even taught in our schools’ curriculum. Talk about much ado about nothing but that hasn’t stopped Ronnie before.) No mixed messaging there. Schools are “indoctrination factories” says the Ivy League graduate. Well he would know right? Gotta change the system from the inside I guess.

        At least Lori Hershey got a jump start on Ronnie’s mixed messaging with her veto on changing Confederate school names due to funding. She’s gonna fit right in there in Tally.

        Oh well guess I’ll keep voting for school board members not based on the R or D next to their names but on how well I believe they will serve the community as a whole. But I could be wrong so keep dividing people. Eventually you’ll reap what you sow Ronnie.

      • George

        June 6, 2021 at 2:15 pm

        How will that differ from what is taught today on those subjects?

    • Charlotte Greenbarg

      June 6, 2021 at 1:24 pm

      You obviously don’t know what critical race theory really is. Please become educated and you’ll understand why we are opposed

      • Frankie M.

        June 6, 2021 at 1:55 pm

        I’ve learned that the majority of people opposed to teaching critical race theory in schools have no clue what it is. (Usually they’re the same people opposed to changing Confederate school names or taking down statues from a bygone era for fear of erasing a part of their heritage while calling supporters revisionist historians.) The only thing they know about it is what Ronnie’s told them on Faux news & friends. Not exactly fair & balanced. They should check their source.

        • Charlotte Greenbarg

          June 6, 2021 at 2:06 pm

          So you have no idea what CRT is all about. Figures

    • Howard

      June 17, 2021 at 11:09 am

      Acknowledging that we treated Indians and Blacks badly in the past isn’t Critical Race Theory. Saying that white peoples bear inherited guilt forever is.

  • Mark

    June 6, 2021 at 11:52 am

    All those subjects were taught when I was in school in the 50’s and 60’s. Where were you that American and World history was not taught?

    • George

      June 6, 2021 at 12:40 pm

      My question was not was has been taught in the past, it was how will these be taught under the proposed new guidelines going forward.

  • PeterH

    June 6, 2021 at 12:27 pm

    They burned books in Venezuela and Germany. I guess today’s GQP is ok with that!

    • Cary

      June 6, 2021 at 1:20 pm

      Your comment is the definition of “HYPERBOLE”!!!
      GROW UP!!!

      • Frankie M.

        June 6, 2021 at 2:12 pm

        Does Germany not teach about the Holocaust in their schools for fear of alienating their youth? Do they name schools & commemorate statues for Nazi leaders? Maybe we should ask them what they think about critical race theory being taught in our schools? Or we can just believe everything that comes out of Ronnie’s mouth about CRT.

  • Tom

    June 6, 2021 at 12:48 pm

    DeSantis is an opportunist. He does not believe in anything other than his own political career. He sees an easy opportunity to get name recognition by being the new darling of Fox Spews, so he says exactly what Trump-Suckers want to hear. He, like Trump, pretends to believe in conservative ideals. That’s an act. A scripted reality show. DeSantis, like Marco Rubio, is a simple little man empowered by lies taken from a script written by Trump–a complicated little man.

  • Benedict

    June 6, 2021 at 3:24 pm

    DeSantis is bound and determined to qualify his brand of passive aggressive bigotry. Taking Florida back to the days prior to Leroy Collins, one of Florida’s good governors, whose efforts and legacy are about to be defiled. These politicians are very disturbing, and have each year for some time now, formed this state into something unrecognizable to someone that was raised here over these past six decades.

  • PeterH

    June 6, 2021 at 3:42 pm

    Since Reagan, who in eight years of failed leadership and 150 indictments and convictions tripled the national debt to lower unemployment 1% point, the Republican Party has increasingly looked backward to social issues to excite their base to vote for their draconian policies. I’ve researched and learned …. I’ll never again vote for another Republican. Their January 6th attempted coup solidified my opinion.

  • Tom

    June 7, 2021 at 3:46 am

    What an oxymoron for liberal elites to act like they they know what needs to be taught in school’s. Good for Gov DeSantis, yes bottom up effort needed to drive these Marxist extremists Out. DeSantis will get it done as he’s in position to do so with big blow out coming.

    • mgrad92

      June 7, 2021 at 1:44 pm

      An oxymoron, huh?

      • Thinking American Voter

        June 7, 2021 at 2:18 pm

        Fear not! Trump loves his uneducated!

  • Not blind

    June 7, 2021 at 10:58 am

    Look it up! There are five thousand powerless and voiceless communist in the USA. Your narrative is a wingnut talking point meant for QAnon sheep! Congratulations!

  • Tom

    June 13, 2021 at 10:27 am

    George & Peter H. more people see through the liberal elitism. Your attacks on education policy and DeSantis & Reagan demonstrate your inability to appreciate common sense and middle class policies. Governor DeSantis studied the science and led in rejecting the false narratives that were spoon fed. People of Florida and around the country have welcomed him as “America’s” Governor. Compared to the elites choices of Cuomo, Newsom & Whitmer. Fried would pursue the same lockdown strategy.
    Falling flat.

Comments are closed.


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