OPINION: Don’t DeSantis our school boards
Trump afterbirth and aspiring Viktor Orbán wanna-be, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is taking his petty vindictiveness to the next level by going after mostly Democratic school districts yet again, looking to pack school boards with right-wing Karens who subscribe to his crackpot credos.
This time, Revenging Ron is doing so under the guise of the districts allegedly not following the state’s school safety requirements, reports Anne Geggis at Florida Politics.
Last week, DeSantis suspended four elected Broward County School Board members in an unprecedented, overreaching move in which the grand jury requested by DeSantis for a post-Parkland probe into school safety found “neglect of duty and incompetence.”
As the Governor pushes for people to be allowed to carry guns in Florida with no permits, it seems he’d rather punish school board members who don’t faithfully follow his fascistic findings than do anything substantial about preventing gun violence in schools.
Ron’s latest stunt has people raging.
“What Governor DeSantis did is un-American and undemocratic. He doesn’t care about democracy and overturned the will of the voters. This action is authoritarian-like and has no place in the United States of America where the voters decide who represents them,” said ousted Broward County School Board member Laurie Rich Levinson in a written statement. Rich Levinson, whose term was to expire in November, was not seeking reelection.
But, like his taxpayer-funded Yelp tour of DeSantis-friendly truck stops and greasy spoons, Ron’s Revenge Road Rage doesn’t stop there. Now he’s out to do something similar in blue-leaning Duval, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Orange Counties.
It’s not enough that the guv’s increasingly expanding waistline abuse of power had him on a tyrannical tear, threatening to cut budgets only in school districts that defied his anti-science, anti-medicine, anti-mask mania during the height of COVID.
Now Ron’s seeking to screw kids in Dem-leaning districts because, well, because that’s what he does best as he tilts at culture war windmills to rev up his rabid base of bamboozled warriors on the warpath to destroy evil Woketopians who were born with empathy for all human beings, not just white, straight Christian ones.
According to Geggis’ Florida Politics report, superintendents in Broward, Duval, Orange, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties received letters asking them to meet with the Department of Education in person because of the “gravity of the issues” as determined by Tim Hay, director of the Office of Safe Schools, who spent 8 years prior to this position as the Florida Senate Sergeant of Arms.
Hay, who was once a target of an investigation into his extracurriculars, said in the letter: “We have reason to believe that some of the policies and actions the grand jury found are ongoing and require immediate action.”
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright.
Meanwhile, teachers throughout the state are struggling not only with the fact that they’re the 48th worst paid in the nation but also with dealing with DeSantistanian rules and regs, with some even telling parents at a recent Palm Beach County school open house that they’re going through “growing pains” due to the guv’s bigoted, homophobic, racist “Don’t Say Gay” decree.
One teacher, who did not want to give his name due to definite retribution by Ron, said, “I have an opinion, but I’m no longer allowed to express it.” Another said, “We’re having a hard time getting around the governor’s new rules.”
Maybe those unqualified military vets he’s replacing teachers with will have an easier time.
This travesty of DeSantis’ maniacal miseducation to own the libs is not just screwing the children of Democrats, it’s damaging the kids of Republican DeSantis fans too, and everyone will suffer.
Lesley Abravanel is the mother of two Florida public school students and a former entertainment columnist who realized that fighting fascism is more important than keeping up with the Kardashians.
Follow her on Twitter@LesleyAbravanel.
This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.
