Miami-Dade County school board member Luisa Santos finds herself on an island today. She’s the only South Florida name on the governor’s target list.
“I’m not sure why anyone would have a problem with the priorities that I have championed in my first two years,” Santos said.
NBC 6 asked her if she considered herself too “woke.”
“I think the priorities that I have championed on the school board are things that my entire community cares about," Santos replied. "For example, we have focused on teacher pay, focused on making sure that our schools are safe. I’m not sure that’s woke, but that is what every family I’ve heard from in District 9 wants and deserves."
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Governor Ron DeSantis came up with a list of 14 school board members across the state to target for election defeat.
The chair of the Florida GOP said on Twitter that the goal is to remove “leftist school board members who target parents and children.”
DeSantis came up with the list working with the conservative group Moms For Liberty. The founder of that group, Tina Descovich, tweeted a picture of the meeting.
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Her tweet shows DeSantis sitting alongside Education Commissioner Manny Diaz and several lawmakers with the hashtag: #parentalrights.
One parent responded with, “All parents' rights? Or only your rights? Because I don’t want to take books away from kids, I don’t want to stop kids from learning about history that might be uncomfortable.”
“We have drawn a very clear line in the sand that says our school system is for educating kids, not indoctrinating kids,” DeSantis said last summer at the Moms For Liberty conference.
He has made that point several times, using it as the cornerstone of his education policy. GOP governors in other states have copied DeSantis on this issue.
Santos says Miami-Dade County Public Schools are not indoctrinating students and promises to support every child, from every community, background, and label.
“Our community is that diversity, and so our community supports making sure every single child, regardless of their background, has what they need to thrive, I’ll continue to protect that at all costs, and that’s what my community has told me they support,” Santos said.
Working with our partners at Telemundo 51, we did not receive a response about the target list from the governor’s office or the local chapter of Moms For Liberty. Fox News quoted the governor saying those 14 board members “do not protect parental rights and have failed to protect students from woke ideologies,” without defining woke in this context.
Santos has not even filed yet for reelection in 2024. Politically, finding herself on the governor’s hit list could be a double-edged sword, with the potential to even help her by raising her name recognition.
