TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “parental rights” campaign failed to win him the Republican nomination for president, but he’s still fighting the battle on another front: Florida schools, where the movement could continue to shape public education long after he leaves office.
Although the seats are officially nonpartisan, DeSantis endorsed 23 school board candidates in 14 counties this cycle — and 14 incumbents targeted. It’s part of his agenda to counter what he calls “woke” ideology in public schools.
Much of the political debate in the election revolved around “parents’ rights” at a time when both parties are fighting to win over the embattled voting bloc of suburban women. The modern parent-rights movement was born out of opposition to pandemic measures in schools and is now fueled by complaints about classroom instruction on identity, race and history.
Katie Blaxberg wants to make school board meetings boring again. But her campaign for an open seat on the Pinellas County School Board on Florida’s Gulf Coast is anything but.
Since making her bid, the mother of three has been trolled online and labeled a child abuser by opponents, and has tightened security in her home.
Blaxberg, a registered Republican and former legislative adviser, supports free school choice and parental involvement in the classroom, but he says activists behind the parent rights movement have gone too far.
Blaxberg has found himself on the other side of the local chapter of Mothers for Freedoma conservative group. Activists affiliated with the group have smeared her online and posted information about her children and her home. The chapter’s president did not respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press.
“I don’t want to feel unsafe in my home. And I don’t want my children to feel unsafe in my home just because I decided to run for public office,” Blaxberg said.
Blaxberg is vying for one of three seats on the Pinellas City Council, which could determine political control of the district depending on the outcome of the Aug. 20 election.
Historically known as one of the state’s largest swing counties, Pinellas has shifted to the right in recent years. At school board meetings across Florida, for example, conservative activists have read explicit passages from books, equated certain teaching materials with pornography, and labeled teachers as “trimmers.”
“It’s disgusting,” Blaxberg said. “And it’s for shock value.”
It is part of a political storm sweeping Florida’s school boards, which critics say distracts from the mission of achieving student achievement — or lack thereof. 53% of students in Florida according to state data, reading at their grade level or above.
“The misinformation that has been spread by this group of people and the intent to … sow distrust in our teachers,” Blaxberg said, “people are fed up with it.”
Conservative activists and elected officials are trying to gain majorities in local school districts, which are often among the largest employers and landowners in their regions.
DeSantis built his national profile by leveraging culture wars, banning instructions on sexual orientation and gender identity and limiting what Florida schools can teach about racism.
He has joined Moms for Liberty in their effort to turn around school boards across the country.
“I think mothers are the single most important political force for this 2024 cycle,” DeSantis said at the group’s 2023 national conference in Philadelphia.
“He knows who the real conservative is in my race,” Pinellas County School Board candidate Danielle Marolf said after receiving DeSantis’ endorsement.
“My values are really about protecting children,” she said. “Making sure our parents are involved.”
The Pinellas school board elections have drawn the attention of other candidates.
Florida Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna campaigned with Marolf and the other Moms for Liberty-backed school board candidates in Pinellas, Stacy Geier and Erika Picard.
“We started this morning with them with a door-to-door campaign,” Luna said in a video posted Aug. 3. “We want them to take over the school board.”
Other sponsors include Florida Faith Foundations, a group of pastors who work to elect “the most biblically oriented candidates” to counter what they see as the “Spirit of Antichrist” at work in American life.
“The liberals, the anti-God people, they run too much in this country,” FFF President Anthony McDaniel said in a YouTube video. He did not respond to multiple emails from The Associated Press.
“So what are we going to do?” McDaniel said. “We’re going to have conservative, competent Christians elect the Pinellas County School Board.”
Critics say there is often a pattern when a conservative-leaning school board takes power: They go after the principal.
“I’ve seen it in my own board,” said Jennifer Jenkins, a Brevard County school board member who unseated then-incumbent Tina Descovich, who later founded Moms for Liberty.
After the newly elected members took office in November 2022, school principals in Brevard and three other counties were forced out. Critics say the moves threw the districts into chaos and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Erika Picard, a candidate in Pinellas who is being endorsed by DeSantis, said she supports her district’s school superintendent, who is backed by the current board.
“They think that everybody at Moms for Liberty is out to get everybody. And that’s just not the case,” Picard said. “I want to make it very clear: I’m running my own campaign.”
Other board members with ties to DeSantis have worked to expand prayers in schools, opposed the observance of LGBTQ History Month and eliminated sex education books.
Liberal advocacy groups have emerged to counter conservative candidates with their own money and message. The Florida Democratic Party has put forward its own slate of 11 school board candidates.
Back in Brevard County, Jenkins has decided not to run for re-election. Instead, she is launching a new PAC called Educated We Stand to support candidates who oppose the rightward shift in education.
“The extremism in public education is not something the average family can tolerate,” Jenkins said.
___ Kate Payne is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.