(LifeSiteNews) – Twenty-five of 30 school board candidates endorsed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis won elections across Florida on Tuesday, transforming the ideological composition of five school districts.
DeSantis, along with the anti-Critical Race Theory group 1776 Project PAC, endorsed numerous candidates in local races with the goal of stopping left-wing indoctrination in public classrooms.
Today is Election Day for crucial school board races across our state. Florida has led with purpose and conviction that our school system is about education, not indoctrination.
These 30 candidates are committed to the student-first principles of the DeSantis Education Agenda. pic.twitter.com/chcwY3r5Vo
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) August 23, 2022
WATCH: 1776 Project PAC founder @RyanGirdusky appears on @IngrahamAngle to talk about our massive wins in Florida's school board elections last night:
"They say this is a parent's revolution. This is a people's revolution… This can be replicated across the country." pic.twitter.com/P6uQEqM7pG
— 1776 Project Pac (@1776ProjectPac) August 25, 2022
“These school board races will reverberate in significance,” DeSantis said of his “student-first, parent-centered initiative focused on setting Florida’s children up for success, ensuring parental rights in education, and combatting the woke agenda from infiltrating public schools.”
The Blaze reported that their efforts led to the school boards of Miami Dade, Martin, Clay, Sarasota, and Duval counties flipping from Democrat to Republican control. Conservatives in the Sunshine State hope the turnover will result in more scrutiny of classroom content, which will in turn yield more children learning the fundamentals instead of being conditioned to become left-wing activists.
“We were able to win school board victories all across the state of Florida,” DeSantis said after the elections. “Parents are sick of the nonsense when it comes to education.”
“I think Governor DeSantis shined a light on the school boards,” said Bridget Ziegler, a victorious DeSantis-backed candidate in Sarasota County. “The reality is that you have people across the country and in the state who are engaged and aware that we are fed up.”
De-politicizing education has been a major priority for DeSantis. Last year, he announced a state curriculum overhaul that would “expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory and other unsubstantiated theories,” because “our schools are supposed to give people a foundation of knowledge, not supposed to be indoctrination centers, where you’re trying to push specific ideologies.” As a result, Florida has rejected scores of textbooks that fell short of state standards, prompting publishers to revise them.
Earlier this year, DeSantis signed a curriculum transparency law requiring public schools to make classroom materials available for parental review, as well as a parental rights law that bans schools from teaching children in kindergarten through third grade about transgenderism and other sexuality-related issues, limits discussions of sexuality for older children to “age appropriate” content, and requires parents to be informed of any changes that could affect their child’s physical, emotional, or mental well-being.
As students head back to their classrooms this fall, I'm happy to clear up any "confusion" the media may have about appropriate curriculum:
✅ Math, Reading, Writing
❌ CRT, Sexualized Content, Transgender IdeologyFlorida schools will educate children, not indoctrinate them.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) August 3, 2022
The governor’s friends and foes alike recognized his intervention in school board races as an unprecedented move, as state leaders tend not to involve themselves in local races. Many on the political Right hope that his example will be emulated by Republicans in other states, potentially leading to more comprehensive cultural transformation.
The move also bolsters DeSantis’s standing as a proactive conservative governor, whose record has made him a favorite among many as a potential 2024 Republican candidate for president.