Backroom Briefing: Weekly political notes from The News Service of Florida
By Jim Turner ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — Most governors would probably celebrate if U.S. News & World Report ranked their states No. 1 in the country for education.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis this week appeared to take exception to a U.S. News story outlining why Florida remained tops in the nation for education for a second year.
“You could tell that they didn’t want to admit that,” DeSantis said Tuesday during an appearance in Port Canaveral.
The story, posted Tuesday on the U.S. News website, said the “debate around education in Florida is among the most contentious in America” and pointed to controversies about policies put in place by DeSantis, Republican lawmakers and state education leaders.
“When the media says you do things that are controversial, that just means you’re doing things that they don’t like, it doesn’t mean it’s actually controversial,” DeSantis said. “What we’re doing, the vast majority of people know, is common sense. But that’s just kind of how they cloak it. But you know, maybe part of the reason we are No. 1 in education is because we’ve been willing to take on those fights and win those fights on behalf of the people of this state.”
The U.S. News story touched on controversial issues such as Florida’s restrictions on instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity and DeSantis’ attempts to influence school board elections and revamp New College of Florida.
The story said education metrics used by U.S. News “tend to focus on aspects of affordability, accessibility and achievement” and that Florida’s ranking remains “largely fueled by several stellar metrics in higher education and less so by Florida’s still fairly strong performance in the prekindergarten-through-12th grade arena.”
It added that “the data used also can lag behind more recent developments due to when it’s released by a source and to the time needed for analysis. Many education metrics are tied to the year 2022, for example, and policy shifts may take time to play out.”
PANTHER POLITICS
Florida Democrats changed some of their merch over the weekend, replacing an image of the state within the letter D of the word “Democratic” to a photo of a snarling Florida panther.
Republicans quickly pounced on the change and played off the endangered status of panthers. They said that by disassociating from the donkey symbol of the national Democratic Party, Florida Democrats owned up to being an “endangered species.”
The merchandise rollout came as the state Democratic Party held an annual weekend event at Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Resort in Orlando.
In directing people to the “new swag” online, Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried said in an online post, “We gave the donkey the boot. It’s time to kick ass in Florida.”
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power saw it differently, saying in a statement that “Florida Dems have finally embraced their endangered status” with the new symbol.
“If you come into contact with a Florida Democrat in the wild, whether they identify as a donkey or a panther, we urge you to notify Nikki Fried and her team immediately,” Power added.
THUMBS DOWN
Though it wasn’t a surprise, the Republican Party of Florida formally announced its opposition to two November ballot proposals that would allow recreational use of marijuana and enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution.
The decisions to oppose the proposals by the party’s Executive Board during a quarterly meeting in Orlando came after DeSantis has repeatedly lashed out against both measures.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has embraced both proposals. In part, Democrats hope the abortion measure will help drive voters to support Democratic candidates. The party’s merchandise page also offers rolling paper packaged with the saying “I Roll With Florida Dems.”
In all, voters will consider six proposed constitutional amendments in November. The others would enshrine the right to hunt and fish in the Constitution; require partisan elections of school board members; increase homestead property-tax exemptions; and repeal public campaign financing.
SOCIAL MEDIA POST OF THE WEEK
“At UF press conference, over shouts of protesters, Florida’s top higher education official warns, ‘There will be no negotiations, there will be no appeasement, there will be no amnesty and there will be no divestment.’ Police arrested 9 last week, banned from campus for 3 years.” — University of Florida senior journalism lecturer Ted Bridis (@tbridis) about comments by university system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues on Wednesday.
