Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) will begin a statewide tour Sunday to promote his education agenda and campaign for a slate of school board candidates that he has endorsed.
The DeSantis Education Agenda Tour, which will feature stops in Miami-Dade, Sarasota, Volusia, and Duval counties, begins Sunday, ahead of the state’s primary elections on Tuesday.
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DeSantis has taken an unusual step for a prominent politician by endorsing school board candidates across the state, including several running for seats in the four counties he is slated to visit.
According to Friends of Ron DeSantis, a political action committee supporting the governor, the slate of endorsed school board candidates have “pledged to run on the DeSantis Education Agenda” and are “committed to advancing Governor DeSantis’s agenda at the local school board level.”
“Governor DeSantis endorsed these candidates because he is committed to student success, parental rights, and curriculum transparency, which all start at the school board level,” the group said.
The “education agenda tour” comes as DeSantis continues his campaign for reelection. The Florida governor is widely seen as a possible 2024 presidential candidate, especially if former President Donald Trump opts out of another run for the nation’s highest office.
As governor, DeSantis has enacted a slew of education-related initiatives, many of which have waded deep into culture war issues of race and sexuality in the classroom.
In the past year, DeSantis has signed laws banning critical race theory in schools, expanding parental rights in school settings, and prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity before third grade. The governor has also pushed new initiatives on teacher recruitment and encouraging veterans to become teachers.
The governor alluded to several of the same issues in his endorsement of the school board candidates.
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“These pro-parent, pro-student local school board candidates are committed to the DeSantis Education Agenda,” he said. “Parental rights, curriculum transparency, and classrooms free of woke ideology are all on the ballot this election, and it starts with school board elections. Florida’s school boards need members who will defend our students and stand up for parental rights and will ensure Florida’s children are protected from woke ideology in their classrooms. I am proud to stand by each of them.”
