Pre-filed 2022 Florida bill would make school board elections partisan again
(The Center Square) – In an effort to diminish the role of politics in local school districts, 64% of Florida voters in 1988 approved a state constitution amendment to make school board elections non-partisan.
Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, however, politics has been a defining factor in how local school districts are responding to the emergency nationwide as well as in Florida.
The general divide in the Sunshine State, as elsewhere, is large, urban school districts in areas dominated by Democrats favor adhering to the federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) guidelines, including mandatory mask mandates, while the Republican-dominated Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis favor personal choice and parental control.
The Florida Board of Education (BOE) Tuesday upheld state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s “probable cause” finding that the Alachua and Broward county school districts had “no intention” to comply with a newly-adopted Parents Bill of Rights Act and DeSantis’ June 30 executive order allowing parents to ignore mask mandates when the districts adopted mandatory mask policies.
The two districts face sanctions, which could result in the state withholding the equivalent of board and superintendent salaries from the offending districts and even removing officials from posts.
With politics playing a significant role in how states, districts and school boards are responding to COVID-19 – as well as a host of other issues, including recent upheavals over critical race theory – a bill pre-filed for the Legislature’s 2022 session proposes a constitutional amendment to require school board candidates run under party affiliations beginning in 2024.
State Reps. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, and Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island, on August 12 co-filed House Joint Resolution 35, which asks lawmakers to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2022 ballot to make local school board elections partisan again.
“Parents are outraged by the radicalism of the entrenched educational establishment, and incumbent school board members across the country will see a reckoning of historic proportions at the ballot box in 2022,” Roach told Florida Politics.
Roach has frequently lambasted “liberal” policies imposed by school boards that don’t reflect community and parents’ views. He’s been particularly critical of the Lee County’s School Board policy allowing students use bathrooms consistent with “gender identity.”
Roach said voters should have clear distinctions when they go to the polls and since partisan politics are being exerted by local school boards, it’s only fair that local voters know who stands for what when running for office.
“There is now a clear partisan divide over issues of critical race theory, mask mandates, bathroom policies and school choice,” he said. “The crux of the debate is who should control a child’s education: the government – or parents? I’ve always believed that in every electoral contest, the goal should be maximum transparency. Knowing the political affiliation of candidates should be a fundamental right for all citizens in a representative democracy. Why should we hide this information from voters?”
If HJR 35 is approved by the Legislature, it would go before voters in November 2022 where it would need 60% approval to be encoded into the constitution.
HJR 35 is likely to be the first of many bills addressing school boards and districts lawmakers will consider when they convene in Tallahassee in January.
During the 2021 session, lawmakers pondered HJR 1461, a proposed constitutional amendment asking if school board members should continue to be paid. It passed through three House panels but died in the Senate Rules Committee.
HJR 11/SJR 1642 sought to impose eight-year term limits on school board members. Neither advanced beyond first panel hearings.
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