Conservatives are pushing a ‘parental rights’ agenda in Florida school board races. Will it work?

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “parental rights” campaign didn’t win him the Republican presidential nomination, but he’s still waging that fight on another front: Florida’s schools, where the movement could have an impact on public education long after he leaves office.

Though the seats are officially nonpartisan, DeSantis has endorsed 23 school board candidates across 14 counties this cycle — and targeted 14 incumbent members. It’s part of his agenda to counter what he calls “woke” ideology in public schools.

Much of the political debate in the races has hinged on “parents’ rights” at a time when both parties are fighting to win over the contested voting bloc of suburban women. The modern parental rights movement grew out of opposition to pandemic precautions in schools and is now animated by complaints about classroom instruction on identity, race and history.

The view from Pinellas County

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 has been anything but that.

Since launching her bid, the mom of three has been trolled online, labeled by opponents as a child abuser and has increased security at her home.

A registered Republican and a former legislative aide, Blaxberg supports school choice and parental involvement in the classroom — but said activists behind the parents’ rights movement have gone too far.

Blaxberg has found herself on the opposing side of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group. Activists aligned with the group have disparaged her online and posted information about her children and her home. The chapter president did not respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press.

“I don’t want to feel unsafe in my house. And I don’t want my children to feel unsafe in my house, just because I’ve decided to run for public office,” Blaxberg said.

Blaxberg is vying for one of the three seats up for grabs on the Pinellas board, which, depending on the outcome of the August 20 elections, could determine political control of the district.

Historically known as one of the state’s largest swing counties, Pinellas has been moving to the right in recent years. Like at school board meetings across Florida, conservative activists there have been reading aloud explicit passages from books, equating certain teaching materials to pornography and labeling educators as “groomers.”

“It’s disgusting,” Blaxberg said. “And it’s for shock value.”

It’s part of a political storm sweeping over Florida school boards, which critics say has distracted from the mission of student achievement — or lack thereof. Just 53% of Florida students are reading on grade level or above, according to state data.

“The misinformation that has been spread by this group of people and the intent to … place mistrust in our teachers,” Blaxberg said, “people are tired of it.”

Republican officials rally behind school board candidates

Conservative activists and elected officials are working to win majorities on local school districts, which are often among the largest employers and landowners in their counties.

DeSantis built his national profile by leveraging culture wars, banning instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity and limiting what Florida schools can teach about racism.

He’s embraced Moms for Liberty in their effort to flip school boards across the country.

“I think moms are the key political force for this 2024 cycle,” DeSantis said at the group’s national conference in Philadelphia in 2023.

“He knows who the true conservative is in my race,” said Pinellas County school board candidate Danielle Marolf, after winning DeSantis’ endorsement.

“My values are actually to protect children,” she said. “To make sure that our parents are engaged.”

The Pinellas school board races have caught the attention of other up-ballot candidates.

Florida Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna — whose seat national Democrats have targeted as a potential pickup — has campaigned with Marolf and the other Moms for Liberty-endorsed school board candidates in Pinellas, Stacy Geier and Erika Picard.

“Kicked off campaign door-knocking this morning with them,” Luna said in a video posted on August 3. “We want them to take over the school board.”

Other backers include Florida Faith Foundations, a group of pastors pushing to elect “the most biblically aligned candidates” to counter what they see as the “Spirit of Antichrist” at work in American life.

“The liberals, the anti-God people, they are running 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. “Get conservative competent Christians elected to the Pinellas County School Board.”

Liberal groups push back

Critics say there’s often a pattern when a conservative-leaning school board takes over — they go after the superintendent.

“I’ve seen it on my own board,” said Jennifer Jenkins, a Brevard County School Board member who unseated then-incumbent member Tina Descovich, who went on to found Moms for Liberty.

After newly elected members took office in November 2022, superintendents in Brevard and three other counties were forced out — moves that critics say threw the districts into chaos and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Erika Picard, a DeSantis-backed candidate in Pinellas, said she supports her district’s superintendent, who has the backing of the current board.

“They’re thinking anybody on Moms for Liberty is out to get everyone. And that is just not the case,” Picard said. “I just want to make very clear: I’m running my own campaign.”

Other DeSantis-aligned board members have worked to expand prayer in schools, to oppose LGBTQ History Month observances and toss out sex education textbooks.

Liberal advocacy groups have cropped up to counter conservative candidates with their own money and messaging. The Florida Democratic Party has advanced its own slate of 11 school board candidates.

Back in Brevard County, Jenkins has decided not to seek reelection. Instead, she’s launching a new PAC called Educated We Stand, to support candidates pushing back on education’s right-wing turn.

“The extremism in the area of public education is not something that is palatable to the average family,” Jenkins said.

___ Kate Payne is a corps 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 undercovered issues.