There is a bill before the state legislature (SJR 192 and its companion bill HJR 77) which seeks to put an amendment on the ballot to change the Education Commissioner from appointed to elected. I’d love to hear a debate as to why changing the commissioner to elected rather than changing the state board members to elected is the better option. The latter would be similar to the way the elected local school board works. The locally elected school board hires and can fire the Superintendent.
The state Board of Education appoints the Education Commissioner. They appointed Corcoran and both the board and Corcoran have championed awful ideas during their tenure including banning mask mandates during a pandemic and banning the teaching of critical race theory. Corcoran even bragged that he got a teacher fired for hanging a “black lives matter” banner in her classroom.
Admittedly the state Board of Education is volunteer and perhaps no one would want to run a campaign for a job that is just a volunteer position. If we had a better Governor who cared about public education, this wouldn’t be as big of an issue. In other words, I admit there is currently a problem. However, it seems to me the better solution is to elect the state Board of Education members rather than letting the Governor appoint them. Take a look at the article about Andy Tuck who was appointed to the state Board of Education–he didn’t want evolution taught as fact in the district run schools. It makes me wonder if the attacks on teaching evolution are part of the problem with the state Board of Education members agreeing to the ban on mask mandates. If people don’t have a basic grasp of evolution, they can’t grasp that the virus mutates?
Florida Constitution Article IX SECTION 2
The state board of education shall be a body corporate and have such supervision of the system of free public education as is provided by law. The state board of education shall consist of seven members appointed by the governor to staggered 4-year terms, subject to confirmation by the senate. The state board of education shall appoint the commissioner of education.
In case anyone else was wondering about the 1998 ballot initiative that changed the Education Commissioner from elected to appointed, here’s a good analysis. It was one of those Constitution Revision Commission ballot initiatives where they lump bunches of stuff into one ballot item. It makes me wonder if it would have passed if it stood alone.
Excerpts from this analysis of Revision 8 on the 1998 ballot
Summary of what it did:
1. Merges the Cabinet offices of Treasurer and Comptroller into one Chief Financial Officer.
2. Removes Secretary of State and Commissioner of Education as elected Cabinet offices, leaving membership of the Cabinet to consist of a Chief Financial Officer, Attorney General, and Agriculture Commissioner.
3. Creates an appointed State Board of Education which will assume oversight of the state education system
4. The State Board will in turn appoint the Commissioner of Education, who can devote full-time energies to education matters.
PRO AND CON from the analysis
PRO Allows the Education Commissioner and State Board of Education to concentrate fully on education matters.
PRO Gives the Governor a greater ability to implement his or her campaign platform and makes the Governor and remaining Cabinet more accountable for their voting records.
CON Reduces the number of officials elected by the public.
CON Concentrates power in the hands of fewer people.
Opinion from the analysis:
Revision 8 strengthens the state’s education system by providing for a State Board of Education appointed by the Governor, subject to Senate confirmation. The Commissioner of Education would be appointed by the state board. This will allow both the Board and the Commissioner to devote their full energies to education, and not be burdened with the hundreds of non-education issues dealt with by the Cabinet.
http://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/CRC/CRC-1998/tabloid.html
Excerpts from a couple of articles about this issue
Sen. Janet Cruz and Rep. Fentrice Driskell are filing legislation that would put it on the ballot to change the Florida Constitution so the state’s Education Commissioner is chosen by the voters rather than appointed by the state Board of Education.
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/456364-janet-cruz-wants-voters-to-choose-education-commissioner/
“Floridians deserve the right to vote for who is leading our education system,” Driskell said at the Thursday press conference in Hillsborough County. “It’s time to let the people of Florida have a say in their child’s education by electing a champion of education to lead the way and to be able to hold them accountable at the ballot box.”
https://floridaphoenix.com/2021/09/10/amid-school-mask-controversy-dems-say-fl-education-commissioner-should-be-elected-not-appointed/
Former House Speaker Richard Corcoran, an aggressive advocate for expanding charter schools, voucher-like scholarships and other school choice policies, was unanimously appointed to be the commissioner of education. The commissioner is the state’s chief education officer, in charge of representing Florida’s public educational system (except universities), and is appointed by the State Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor. Governor-elect Ron DeSantis publicly recommended Corcoran.
https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/12/17/richard-corcoran-unaminously-appointed-commissioner-of-education/
As the League expressed to the State Board in our Dec. 7th letter, even if the Board ultimately agreed with Governor-elect Ron DeSantis‘ recommendation for the post of Commissioner of Education — which they clearly did — the Board still had a duty to the children and parents of Florida: to conduct a thorough search for qualified candidates from around the state and country, as they have done in the past.
https://lwvfl.org/league-statement-on-unanimous-appointment-of-corcoran-as-commissioner-of-education/
The education records of Gov. Ron DeSantis and his protégé Corcoran are exhibits A and B in a plausible case for electing the commissioner. They have worked in tandem to fund more private school enrollments at the expense of public schools, and to keep any realistic mention of slavery or racism out of the public school civics curriculum. The public schools should be in the care of people who truly care about the education of the public, not men like DeSantis and Corcoran.
Tuck took the State Board chairmanship — a position that can control the board’s agenda and serve as a bully pulpit — as the board stood poised to consider revisions to all K-12 academic standards.
Andy Tuck voted with the Highlands School Board in 2008 to oppose the teaching of evolution as fact.
Please consider sending a similar email to the state representatives in Jacksonville who I see as pro-public schools and who opposed Jason Fischer’s J-1 bill when he was trying to make Duval School District’s Superintendent elected by the people rather than hired (after a nationwide search) by the locally elected school board.
———- Forwarded message ———
To: gibson.audrey.web@flsenate.gov, tracie.davis@myfloridahouse.gov, angie.nixon@myfloridahouse.gov
Please ask Senator Cruz and Representatives Eskamani and Driskell to amend HJR-77 / SJR-192 and then be a co-sponsor.
If we had a better Governor who cared about public education, this wouldn’t be as big of an issue. In other words, I admit there is currently a problem. However, it seems to me the better solution is to elect the state Board of Education members rather than letting the Governor appoint them.
The locally elected school board hires and can fire the Superintendent. I think it is a good system. I think the state Board of Education should be elected and then continue to appoint the Education Commissioner. Hopefully an elected state Board of Education would do a better job than the appointed state board members did. The League of Women Voters-Florida in a letter to the Governor appointed state Board of Education when the state Board of Education appointed Corcoran said “even if the Board ultimately agreed with Governor-elect Ron DeSantis‘ recommendation for the post of Commissioner of Education — which they clearly did — the Board still had a duty to the children and parents of Florida to conduct a thorough search for qualified candidates from around the state and country, as they have done in the past.”
The Education Commissioner was once elected. I think this reason still stands as a reason to keep the Education Commissioner appointed by the state Board of Education members: It allows the Education Commissioner to concentrate fully on education matters rather than
- campaign for office
- be burdened with the hundreds of non-education issues dealt with by the Cabinet.
These are reasons to elect the state Board of Education members:
- Increases the number of officials elected by the public.
- Reduces the concentration of unchecked power that the governor wields especially when he was elected by a narrow margin
Link to summary of the 1998 ballot initiatives suggested by the Constitution Revision Commission when the Education Commissioner changed from elected to appointed:
http://library.law.fsu.edu/Digital-Collections/CRC/CRC-1998/tabloid.html
Please consider amending HJR 77 and SJR 192 so that the state Board of Education Members are elected and then co-sponsor the bill.
Thank you,
Jacksonville
