With primary election just days away Governor Ron DeSantis was in Doral to promote school board candidates and talk about his education agenda.
"At the end of the day, schools are important, whether you’re in a big school system like Miami or you’re in a charter school or private school or even homeschooling, the schools do not supersede the rights of the parents," he said.
Just steps away, protesters were opposing his recent legislation regarding Florida schools.
Nonpartisan school boards have become a battleground for political fights over culture-war issues like book banning and transgender athletes playing in sports.
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Several times throughout the event, school board member hopefuls, the governor, and Florida Lieutenant Gov. Jeanette Nunez spoke about the Parental Rights in Education Act, also referred to as the Don't Say Gay bill.
“We are going to fight to make sure that they do not have subjected upon them woke gender ideology, critical race theory, and things that only look to confuse them further," Lieutenant Gov. Nunez said.
A group of protesters was nearby rallying throughout the day.
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"He has attacked the LGBTQ community, he’s attacked children, he’s attacked education," said Tania Gonzalez, a parent.
The group said gender and race are crucial parts of education. They also spoke about how having the state mandate against those topics makes it difficult to teach.
“It's like walking on eggshells because you don’t know who you’re going to offend, what to do, what to say, what’s proper to say in the classroom anymore? He made something that was not political, which was the classroom, political," said Elvia Sanz, a teacher.
DeSantis is backing conservative candidates Roberto Alonso and Monica Colucci in Miami-Dade County and Alexandria Suarez in Monroe County. For a full list of all the candidates in Tuesday's primary click here.
People on both sides at the governor's event said they are counting on people to go out and vote on Tuesday.
Here's where you can find everything you need to know for election day.
