The Miami-Dade School Board is supposed to be non-partisan. But will it stay that way?
The School Board of Mia- mi-Dade met for the first time on June 1885. For more than a century, it has been a non-political body — or at least not overtly political — with its focus on how to best educate Miami-Dade students. There are signs that may change next fall.
By the time the nine-member Miami-Dade School Board emerges from the November election, there will likely be two new board members. Through a combination of appointments and the election, it’s probable the new board members will have ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis. And as has been demonstrated over and over, DeSantis is not a hands-off governor when it comes to education.
We’ve seen his interest in what is taught in Florida classrooms’ on full display this past legislative session. DeSantis is an expert at placing, via elections or appointments, “his people” in crucial positions in local and state government.
When controversies break out, those DeSantis loyalists are often there to cast votes supporting the governor’s worldview. It’s a long-term strategy that usually pays off.
We’ve also seen how he has worked in unison with the GOP- led Legislature to restrict what Florida teachers can say to their students about gender issues and limit what they can teach about Black history. And he has reintroduced the concept of banning textbooks. Is burning them far behind?
Regardless, we suspect DeSantis is just getting started in his effort to control what is taught in Florida schools. His appointment of Manny Diaz, Jr., as Florida’s education commissioner will serve him well. Yes, another clever move by our governor.
If DeSantis also holds sway over school boards, like MiamiDade’s — the state’s largest — we could see yet another shift away from local control toward the state. The Miami-Dade School Board, and all local school boards, must continue to have local control. We believe they have the best and most accurate knowledge about what’s right for Miami-Dade schools.
Miami-Dade is not alone. The politicizing of school boards is spreading around the country as culture wars heat up. Oncemundane school board meetings have grown combative over social justice issues, and conser- vative parents and politicians have sought to restrict how race is discussed in classrooms. In Miami-Dade, a school board meeting was recently derailed over an unscheduled discussion of prayer in schools.
We’re seeing how School Board members no longer keep their political views in check even though they’ve been elect- ed to a non-partisan seat. That discussion over prayer in the classroom? That happened because Board Member Lubby Navarro decided to bring it up. When she was first appointed and then elected, Navarro did not reveal her politics or social beliefs; she doesn’t hide them now at meetings.
One of the two expected
openings on the board emerged when longtime board chair Perla Tabares Hantman, 81, announced last month she would not seek reelection after serving nearly three decades on the board.
Today, the only candidate in the race for Hantman’s District 4 seat is Roberto Alonso, a 42year-old Hialeah businessman currently serving on the Miami Dade College Board of Trustees, a DeSantis appointee. How interesting.
The second opening on the board may come because Board Member Christi Fraga announced her candidacy for Doral mayor in January. The move
requires her to resign from her District 5 School Board seat, which means DeSantis could appoint her replacement.
The important tradition of non-partisanship on the School Board is being challenged and the implications could be serious.
How long before students in specific districts are represented, not by a plain old School Board member, but by a Republican School Board member or a Democratic one? We wonder what those Board members who met to form the Miami-Dade school board 137 years ago would think of this shift toward politicizing education.