According to ABC News, 25 of the 30 school board candidates endorsed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won or are likely to win their races. The result? A baker's dozen formerly liberal-dominated school boards in Florida elected conservative majorities in Tuesday's primary. For example, the Sarasota School Board flipped from a 3-2 liberal majority to a 4-1 conservative majority when three candidates endorsed by DeSantis came out on top.
Other Florida county school boards that experienced a similar outcome include Miami-Dade, Seminole, and Hillsborough, home to Tampa.
John Stemberger of Orlando-based Florida Family Policy Council says the COVID pandemic woke parents up to the indoctrination and grooming going on in public schools. He tells AFN that "parents were outraged" by what they witnessed during the country's foray into virtual classroom education.
"During COVID, the garbage and the indoctrination was coming directly into the household through the family computer or TV screen," he points out. And Stemberger argues that schools discovered it is unwise to get between a mom and her child.
"We have now millions of 'grizzly mamas' who are pretty upset at the school boards' non-responsiveness and inability to protect their children," he adds.
According to the family advocate, dozens of parents were then motivated to run for school boards.
"They want their children protected, they want them educated – not indoctrinated. Schools are not doing that," he contends. "They've been disregarding parents' rights [and] parents' voices, and now they're feeling the political results of that."
Stemberger predicts that a certain percentage of those new school board members will find they are skilled at the "political game" and will eventually bring their conservative worldview to higher office.
"All politics is local," he concludes, "and it does give a stronger bench when we have these folks who were tried-and-true tested who can move on to different areas – [such as] councilman, to state legislative bodies, to Congress and other things as well."
One of the groups pushing back against liberal indoctrination in America's classrooms has been the 1776 Project PAC, which works to elect school board members nationwide who want to "reform our public education system by promoting patriotism and pride in American history." Moms for Liberty has also been working behind the scenes in Florida over their concerns about parental rights and liberal indoctrination of children.
