DeFlorida Blueprint: How Ron DeSantis's education policies could shape the 2024 race

Jeremiah Poff

May 08, 06:43 AM May 08, 06:43 AM

DeFlorida Blueprint is a five-part series examining the legislative and policy record of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. As the Florida legislature wraps up its 2023 session, DeSantis is widely expected to declare he is running for the Republican presidential nomination, putting him on a collision course with former President Donald Trump. The first part of this series will examine his record on education.

The Florida legislature adjourned from its 2023 legislative session Friday after delivering a wish list of conservative bills to the desk of Ron DeSantis ahead of an expected presidential campaign launch.

Since the summer of 2020, Florida's Republican governor, who narrowly won election to his first term in 2018 before winning a landslide reelection campaign last year, has anointed himself a trailblazer on Republican education policy, and conservative activists are calling for other Republican-controlled states to follow Florida's lead.

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The Florida blueprint

Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project, a conservative political action committee, told the Washington Examiner that DeSantis's approach to education "offers a new way forward for reforming America’s education system" and is one that conservatives should take note of.

"The lesson conservatives should take away from DeSantis’s education agenda is that you can and must use the political power that voters entrust you with after getting elected," Schilling said. "For so long, Republicans were elected and given power from the people to fix America’s problems, and they almost never used it outside of giving corporations more tax cuts and to start more wars that no one wants. We should take this model to every area where progressives have taken advantage at a minimum to reverse and tear down the destructive institutions and policies they’ve created."

The pugnacious Florida governor, known for his squabbles with the press, put himself front and center of the COVID-19 discourse when he ordered all schools in the Sunshine State to reopen for full in-person classes five days a week in the summer of 2020.

The order touched off a fight with school districts throughout the state, many of which attempted to resist the governor's directive, but ultimately DeSantis prevailed. Just as quickly, a new fight began over whether or not the districts could require students to wear masks. The governor promptly signed an executive order in the summer of 2021 prohibiting districts from mandating masks.

In 2021, DeSantis began a legislative and executive branch policy push on education that continued through the 2023 legislative session and has provided him with a substantial record to tout to voters as he is widely expected to launch a presidential campaign in the coming weeks.

Parental rights

The bulk of DeSantis's policy reforms have come at the K-12 level, with several initiatives generating substantial national press coverage, beginning with his push to fully open schools in the fall of 2020. From there, DeSantis has molded himself as a champion of parental rights, most notably signing into law the Parental Rights in Education Act in 2022, which was dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by critics who took issue with a provision that barred classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity prior to fourth grade.

The primary purpose of the law was to outline the rights of parents in school settings and prohibit school staff from keeping parents in the dark about their child's well-being at school, including if the child wished to identify as a gender that differed from their biological sex.

But the controversial law is only one of the several DeSantis has pushed in recent legislative sessions. He also championed efforts to allow military veterans who have not completed degrees to work as teachers and pushed for pay raises for teachers. In the 2023 legislative session, he also pushed for the passage of a "Teachers Bill of Rights."

Curriculum requirements

On the curriculum front, DeSantis has signed bills requiring high school students to take financial literacy courses, as well as implementing more stringent history standards, including requiring schools to teach about the history of communism.

Not all of these reforms were pushed through the legislature. In April, the governor's Department of Education expanded the restrictions on sexual orientation and gender identity content in classrooms to all grades, building on the requirements set for in the 2022 parental rights law.

In January, the Florida Department of Education provided yet another flashpoint of controversy after it blocked the College Board from piloting its Advanced Placement African American Studies course in the state. The DeSantis administration said the pilot framework of the course potentially violated state law due to its inclusion of concepts such as "Black Queer Studies."

Not everyone agrees with his tactics. Sasha Tirador, a Florida-based Democratic consultant, told the Washington Examiner that the Florida governor's wholehearted embrace of the culture war was harmful to the state but acknowledged it could help him in a Republican presidential primary.

"There's nothing heroic about what he's done," Tirador said. "This is not 'I think the curriculum should be A, B or C,' This is 'I don't think your kids should know A, B or C.' Well, that's not for you to decide; that is for the local school boards to decide, who, by the way, Mr. Governor, are ... elected by [their] local constituents."

School choice

In March, DeSantis signed a comprehensive bill that expanded eligibility for the state's school choice program to all students, thereby empowering families to cover education costs, including private school tuition, with state funds.

The universal school choice program is one area in which Florida has actually followed other Republican-led states. Last year Arizona became the first state to pass universal school choice and has been joined by Arkansas, Iowa, and Utah this year.

Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action, noted that under DeSantis's leadership, Florida earned top marks in the Heritage Foundation's Education Freedom Report Card.

"DeSantis's policy agenda has protected children, empowered parents, and given educators the resources they need to set students up for success," Anderson told the Washington Examiner. "Aside from banning divisive CRT curriculum and protecting students from inappropriate and radical gender ideology content, Gov. DeSantis and the Florida legislature have worked together to put parents back in the driver's seat with historic education freedom measures and a Parental Bill of Rights."

Anderson said the educational issues and policies championed by DeSantis are a key driver of parental engagement in the political process as the 2024 presidential election looms.

"Voters are looking to candidates who have a clear policy vision and solutions to the problems they see in their children's classrooms," she said. "They want a proven leader who is willing to stand up to big education and call out the nonsense being peddled by liberal activists attempting to infiltrate our school systems. ... Every candidate should expect this issue to be front and center as we move deeper into the 2024 presidential election cycle."

Higher education

The Florida governor's embrace of the education culture wars also stretched into the realm of higher education, where he attempted to restrict the teaching of critical race theory at public universities through the STOP WOKE Act, which has encountered numerous legal roadblocks as critics have decried the law as an assault on academic freedom.

The governor has also moved to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracies, changed the rules for how state universities must apply for accreditation, reformed tenure protections for college professors, and appointed a group of hard-line conservatives to the board of trustees of one of the state's most liberal colleges.

In January, DeSantis appointed six new members to the board of the New College of Florida and tasked them with remaking the school in the image of Hillsdale College, a conservative liberal arts college in Michigan. The board got right to work and fired the college's president within weeks of taking over and hired DeSantis's former commissioner of education to fill the post on an interim basis.

Schilling told the Washington Examiner that he considered DeSantis's appointments to the New College of Florida Board of Trustees among the most consequential education reform efforts the governor has directed since taking office in January 2019 and said it could serve as a model at the federal level.

"The most impressive thing he’s done is shown conservatives how to no longer be pushovers regarding higher education," Schilling said. "Conservatives never use government funds in a productive manner to curb left-wing power grabs. With the New College of Florida, DeSantis is showing conservatives what we could do from the federal level across the country. It’s beautiful."

Chris Christie says Trump has not 'cleared' 2024 GOP primary field

Jack Birle

April 16, 06:14 PM April 16, 06:27 PM

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) cautioned those calling former President Donald Trump the likely 2024 nominee that he has not "cleared" the field of fellow GOP primary candidates.

Christie dismissed the idea Trump had already cleared the field despite some 2024 contenders, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, opting against challenging the former president. Trump is considered the frontrunner in the field, with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) close behind in several polls, but with other contenders far behind the two leaders.

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"I don’t think the field is starting to look like Trump. When you’re indicted in one place and you’re facing investigations in two others, it makes you at least an uncertain winner. But again, he’s the former president. So course he’s going to be the front runner. He has the best name ID of anybody in the race. But you already have four candidates who announced," Christie said on ABC's This Week on Sunday.

"This is what I said a couple months ago on this show. This is not going to be a 2016 field. This is going to be six to eight candidates that are going to be running. It will be a normal type sized field. But certainly it won’t be a field that Donald Trump has cleared," Christie added.

Christie also said that he believes the 2024 contenders who announced they would not run, likely did it for personal reasons rather than seeing the primary as Trump's to lose.

"You see Asa Hutchinson in the race and Nikki Haley in the race, now Tim Scott in the race. These are substantial people who are going to have something to say. And so I don’t think that’s what it means at all," Christie said. "I do think each one of these decisions were made on rather personal levels. I think, in particular, Pompeo's was a decision, that was just he didn’t want to do it. And boy you got to really want to do it to be able to get in."

Christie, who ran for president in 2016, has teased that he may run again in 2024 but would not announce a decision on This Week when asked directly.

Sununu makes rare admission of pro-choice stance while ripping abortion pill chaos

Emily Jacobs

April 15, 10:19 PM April 15, 10:29 PM

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu acknowledged his pro-choice position over the weekend while reiterating his concern that "hardline" stances from fellow Republicans will hurt the party's ability to reach new voters.

Sununu, a Republican, made the comments Saturday while discussing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, facing protests while visiting New Hampshire Friday night after signing a six week abortion ban into law. The New Hampshire governor said he believed that some of his GOP colleagues taking extreme positions, and at times implementing them, was harming the party's electorally.

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"My issue is I think it's a terrible message for for the Republican primary, I really do, I think it hurts us in the general election," Sununu said. "I think there are much more pressing issues, if you will, that are facing Americans like inflation, like fiscal responsibility, like border security. All of these are really the issues that have to be answered, that have to be provided solutions to."

The governor said the electorate was on his side on this issue. He argued that Republicans who pushed federal abortion bans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections alienated disaffected Democrats and independents who may have otherwise considered voting for GOP candidates.

The governor was referencing Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) proposing a national 15-week abortion ban just before last November. He called proposing such restrictions ahead of an election, "the dumbest thing you could possibly do."

Many political observers and pollsters have argued that the Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade last year was one of two primary causes for Republican's lackluster midterm showing. Former President Donald Trump's oft controversial primary picks failing to gain traction in the general election was also blamed for the party's much-anticipated red wave turning out to be a ripple.

The Wisconsin state Supreme Court race earlier this month, where the winning liberal candidate centered her candidacy on abortion access, furthered those concerns.

A U.S. District Court judge out of Texas ruled last week that the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, one part of a two-drug regimen to induce an abortion, should be suspended. The ruling was at odds with a similar one out of Washington state. By Friday, the Supreme Court stepped in with a stay on order, setting the stage for a high court ruling on the matter.

Asked if he thought a Supreme Court ruling to uphold the mifepristone ban would hurt the GOP further with independent voters, Sununu answered affirmatively.

"Yes, yeah absolutely. Look, [mifepristone has] been around for 20 years. The issue isn't so much about whether it gets banned or not. I mean, I'm pro-choice, I think it should be legal, that's fine. But it's all about these massive changes in precedent, right?" he said. "Roe v. Wade, whether you agreed with or not, there was a 50 year precedent there. There's a 20 year precedent with [mifepristone]. So now to the American public it looks like Republicans are coming in and trying to massively change and blow up the system."

Sununu said that while abortion was not "a non-issue," he believed some Republicans taking severe positions on the matter was turning away independents and "the younger generation of Republicans" which he said the party needs "to stop being so disenfranchised" so they "come back on the team."

"I just think the messaging as a whole is not where it needs to be," he continued, noting that "it'll be interesting to see" how 2024 Republican presidential candidates navigate the issue. "Ether way, I don't think it's anything that helps us in the long term. I just want to win in '24."

One matter uniting Trump and DeSantis but dividing the party

Emily Jacobs

March 10, 08:54 AM March 10, 08:54 AM

Leading establishment Republicans have begun taking aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as a partywide fight emerges over who is the best alternative 2024 candidate to former President Donald Trump.

DeSantis, the only GOP name that comes anywhere close to the former president in primary polls, has largely avoided scrutiny from fellow Republicans since emerging as the leading Trump alternative. However, as his star grows with the party's right flank, the Florida governor is taking heat from top establishment 2024 hopefuls for his position on a top foreign policy matter: the war in Ukraine.

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Speaking to Politico at a private donor retreat organized by Karl Rove and the Texas Voter Engagement Project in Austin, Texas, late last month, former Vice President Mike Pence, Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH), and former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) painted DeSantis as the wrong man to rescue the party from Trump.

“The Bible says if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will know to get ready for battle,” Pence told the outlet of DeSantis's Ukraine posture. “To me, it’s a function of leadership.”

"We’ve got to speak plainly to the American people about the threats that we face,” the former vice president said while calling for “strong American leadership on the world stage.”

Explaining how he had "no illusions about [Russian President Vladimir] Putin," Pence added, “Russia is on the move, when authoritarian regimes like China are threatening their neighbors, we need to meet that moment with American strength.”

Christie, who made a career off his rhetorical candidness, told donors while speaking at the conference to "stop whispering" about their unease with Trump and warned that the safer course was not to "just nominate Trump Lite."

“If we continue down this road, it’s a road that will lead us to another four years of Joe Biden,” Christie said, making reference to Trump’s prediction that his win would cause Republicans to grow tired of winning while lamenting the party's “losing and losing and losing and losing.”

Taking aim at DeSantis specifically, Christie called the Florida governor's recent comments about sliding into a proxy war with China "one of the most naive things I’ve ever heard in my life," as the United States is already locked in such a conflict.

"Don’t be fooled by false choices” being pushed by “a fellow governor,” Christie added while lamenting DeSantis's argument that Biden is too focused on Ukraine at the expense of the U.S.-Mexico border, prompting the former New Jersey governor to wonder how "they teach foreign policy in Tallahassee."

“I’m absolutely shocked when I hear Republicans talk about not defending Ukraine and not ensuring America is strong across the planet,” Sununu told the outlet after his own address to donors.

Mentioning DeSantis by name before backtracking, Sununu said, "Stop trying to have it, not just to Ron, but to anybody: You can’t have it both ways.”

Sununu went on to bemoan Republicans “who want to outdo the Democrats at their own game of big government solutions” and said, “You have to be willing to have the fight, but you can’t only be about the fight.”

California Republicans prefer DeSantis to Trump: Poll

Jack Birle

March 02, 03:29 PM March 02, 03:29 PM

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) leads former President Donald Trump in both a crowded field and head-to-head among Republican voters in California, as the governor is set to speak at a fundraiser for the Orange County GOP.

DeSantis leads Trump in a crowded field by 37%-29%, and he beats the former president by 50%-33% head-to-head, in a poll conducted by The Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies last month.

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The Sunshine State governor is coming to California next week to speak at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley at a sold-out fundraiser. The event is part of DeSantis's book tour, but it could be a chance to gain favor among Republicans in the Golden State ahead of an expected presidential run.

DeSantis has not announced a presidential run, insisting he is focused on governing Florida. However, he is expected to launch a bid in late May or early June, once the state legislative session concludes. Trump handily won California in the GOP primaries in 2016, but it was after all major candidates had dropped out.

The same survey indicates California remains safe territory for Democrats in the 2024 general election, with Biden leading DeSantis and Trump by 23 and 30 percentage points, respectively. The last time a Republican presidential candidate won the Golden State was George H.W. Bush in 1988.

DeSantis's popularity has increased among California Republicans, especially as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has made the Florida governor his chief rival. Newsom ran television advertisements in Florida last July, telling Floridians to leave the state, arguing that in California, "we still believe in freedom." Later in 2022, Newsom sent a letter to the Justice Department demanding it prosecutes Florida and Texas over transporting immigrants to liberal areas, including New York City and Martha's Vineyard. At the time, DeSantis joked that Newsom's "hair gel was interfering with his brain function."

Newsom has said he will not run for president in 2024, and his constituents do not seem to want him to run based on recent polling.

California's presidential primary elections for the Republican and Democratic parties are scheduled for March 5, 2024.