Florida GOP politics turn top Broward school job into one with flashing ‘caution’ sign | Opinion

With Gov. Ron DeSantis’ heavy-handed power grabs on local school boards and the punitive political climate in Florida, especially in education, anyone with the slightest common sense might think twice about raising a hand for the Broward County School superintendent’s job.

Just ask the hapless consultants trying to find top-notch candidates for the post.

Broward is the sixth-largest school district in the country. This should be a plum position, with people falling all over themselves to apply. But the consultants said that’s not the case.

“Politically, Florida is a challenge. I’m being very straight up with you. Very, very challenging,” Ralph Ferrie, who works for Nebraska-based search firm McPherson and Jacobson, told School Board members Tuesday, as the Miami Herald reported.

He said there were other issues that gave applicants pause as well — the Sunshine Law requirement that requires governmental bodies to be transparent, exposing applicants’ names early in the process, plus the headline-making turmoil between the Board and its former superintendent, Vickie Cartwright.

But as the governor and Republican Legislature impose laws restricting teachers’ unions and classroom instruction, among other education-focused legislation, they’re turning a premier job into one that comes with a flashing “caution” sign.

And that’s not even counting the governor’s political interference as he endorses local school board candidates and targets others. And, in higher education, the governor has successfully dumped the entire New College of Florida board of trustees and replaced them with conservatives who will do his bidding.

What high-level education professional would want to take the risk of coming to Florida with that kind of uncertainty as the backdrop? Don’t forget Broward is still majority Democratic, which makes it even more likely to feel the wrath of the ill-tempered governor. So there’s that disincentive, too.

It’s so bad that the board will have to decide next week whether it wants to halt the search process for its next superintendent to recruit more applicants or pick finalists from the 15 qualified candidates who have applied. A total of 26 people applied, but only 15 met the minimum requirements — like a master’s degree and computer skills.

That’s the same applicant pool that board member Torey Alston called “junior varsity” and “absolutely weak — collectively.”

Yikes.

The Miami Herald asked Alston if he thought the state’s political climate could have contributed to the unimpressive pool of candidates. He said no — but two other board members felt the opposite.

Debra Hixon, the board’s vice chair, called out the state’s “micromanagement” of education and said, “The respect and the dignity of education is just not where it should be for us to be attracting people.” How welcome you feel in a place plays a role, too, she noted.

Board member Allen Zeman brought up retention statistics at the University of Florida and said, “There’s absolutely a political effect.”

There’s bound to be. And that’s a shame for Broward, whose students deserve a fully capable superintendent, especially as the county continues to struggle with the long-term aftermath of the Parkland shooting.

DeSantis loves to tout the record in-migration to Florida. He likes to call this a free state. But high-quality candidates for jobs in education — and a whole lot of other areas as well — might see the state of Florida as a risk that’s just too great to take.