Florida Voters Just Tanked GOP Efforts To Further Politicize Public Schools

Florida voters are projected to reject an effort to politicize the state’s public schools even further. They voted down Amendment 1, which asked Floridians if they wanted the state’s school board candidates to be identified by political party on ballots.

School board candidates in the state are nonpartisan, though these races have become increasingly politicized over the last several years. Florida’s schools have been at the center of the conservative culture wars since parents began protesting coronavirus school-related closures and masking policies.

Florida is one of the nation’s leaders in book banning and censoring teachers. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, for his part, supported legislation that would restrict what teachers can say in the classroom about gender identity, sexual orientation and racism — including the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits teachers from talking about gender identity or sexual orientation. The measure, which DeSantis signed in March 2022, sparked massive protests and a condemnation from Disney. DeSantis retaliated against the company by revoking its special tax status, and Disney subsequently sued the Florida government for violating its First Amendment rights. Both sides reached a settlement in March 2024.

In 2022, DeSantis endorsed 25 candidates for school board races across the state and 22 of them won. Moms for Liberty also posted big wins in that election. But this year, most of the DeSantis-backed candidates lost their races in August or moved on to runoffs after failing to get a majority of votes, signaling that DeSantis’ plot to remake the state’s schools was floundering.

Amendment 1 was widely seen as an effort to politicize the schools even further. Republicans said it would offer voters more transparency. Democrats, meanwhile, opposed the amendment because of the potential to disenfranchise voters. Florida is a closed primary state, meaning that voters cannot participate in partisan elections unless they are affiliated with a political party. In Florida, 30% of voters are unaffiliated, meaning millions of people would not be able to vote in school board primary races.

Amendment 1 needed to earn 60% of the vote to change the state’s constitution.