Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) will be participating in what has been dubbed the “DeSantis Education Tour” beginning Sunday August 21, as he will be making stops in key areas supporting conservative school board members, touting his administration’s “pro-parent, student-first education agenda for Florida.”
“These pro-parent, pro-student local school board candidates are committed to the DeSantis Education Agenda. Parental rights, curriculum transparency, and classrooms free of woke ideology are all on the ballot this election, and it starts with school board elections,” DeSantis said in a statement.
“Florida’s school boards need members who will defend our students and stand up for parental rights and will ensure Florida’s children are protected from woke ideology in their classrooms. I am proud to stand by each of them,” he said.
The campaign’s announcement comes on the heels of the governor endorsing a slew of conservative school board candidates across the state — those he believes will champion his administration’s educational blueprint, prioritizing students and parental rights in the classrooms. The blueprint includes endorsing candidates who reject lockdowns and indoctrination and support parental rights, curriculum transparency, and an emphasis on civics education.
The stops on this particular education tour include Miami-Dade, Sarasota, Volusia, and Duval counties. The governor’s current school board endorsements include:
Al Hernandez – Pasco County
Armor Persons – Lee County
Chad Choate – Manatee County
Christy Chong – Flagler County
Cindy Spray – Manatee County
Colonel Richard Tatem – Manatee County
Darren Horan – Monroe County
Erin Skipper – Clay County
Jacqueline Rosario – Indian River County
Jaime Haynes – Volusia County
Jennifer Russell – Martin County
Jill Woolbright – Flagler County
Robyn Marinelli – Sarasota County
Sam Fisher – Lee County
Stephanie Busin – Hendry County
Phil Leary – Putnam County
Mildred Russell – Alachua County
Megan Wright – Brevard County
April Carney – Duval County
Charlotte Joyce – Duval County
Aly Legge – Hillsborough County
Roberto Alonso – Miami-Dade County
Monica Colucci – Miami-Dade County
Bridget Ziegler – Sarasota County
Timothy Enos – Sarasota County
Fred Lowry – Volusia County
Alexandria Suarez – Monroe County
Stacy Hahn – Hillsborough County
Patricia Rendon – Hillsborough County
Rick Nolte – Polk County
“There is a playbook, and, what I think so many people have now realized, as the result of the great parent awakening after COVID, the same playbook that happens in Sarasota County happens across the state and happens across the country,” conservative school board member and candidate Bridget Ziegler of Sarasota told Breitbart News Saturday in March.
“And it’s largely based on indoctrinating local policy officials all the way down to professional development [given] to the educators, and that trickles down to indoctrinating our students with a very left, progressive agenda,” she added.