鈥� path to national prominence started in Florida鈥檚 classrooms, where he harnessed culture war passions and deployed them in education policies.
In the name of 鈥減arental rights,鈥� the Republican governor has and limited what Florida schools can teach about racism and U.S. history. He has exercised control over the pronouns and bathrooms students use. now must undergo regular reviews, as part of sweeping reforms to police 鈥渓eft-wing ideology鈥� and 鈥渋ndoctrination鈥� in higher education.
His policies have faced wide criticism from and educators, among others, but they also have paid off politically. As DeSantis prepares for the first , he is one of the country鈥檚 most popular Republican politicians and a for the party鈥檚 nomination.
Policy and education experts say DeSantis鈥� agenda on education has influenced what it means to be a viable Republican candidate. It鈥檚 likely to drive some of Wednesday鈥檚 debate, too.
鈥淎 good way to win a Republican primary these days is to be , anti-woke, and anti-LGBTQ,鈥� said Doug Harris, an expert in education policy and economics chair at Tulane University.
How Ron DeSantis become an education leader
DeSantis was not always a culture warrior. Experts who follow DeSantis鈥� policies say after he was elected to his first term in 2018, by a slim margin, there was no sign education policy or courting controversy would become his hallmarks.
Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he seized on discontent with school shutdowns and mask mandates. After initially closing schools, as all governors did in March 2020, DeSantis issued an executive order that July for in-person instruction, ignoring objections from teachers and unions. He threatened to withhold salaries from superintendents who defied a ban on mask mandates.
鈥淭he pandemic was clearly a turning point for DeSantis,鈥� said Carol Weissert, a professor emerita of political science at Florida State University. 鈥淗e pitted himself against schools and aligned himself with parents.鈥�
It was the beginning of many policies that made DeSantis a leader in the conservative push for 鈥� .鈥� The theme was hammered also by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, in his successful 2021 campaign.
鈥淥ur school system should be about educating kids, not indoctrinating kids. And that means we have gone on the offensive against toxic ideologies,鈥� DeSantis said shortly after announcing his presidential bid in May. 鈥淚 can tell you this, I have only begun to fight.鈥�
From critical race theory to math
A major theme of DeSantis' tenure has been a pledge to banish from classrooms, following the lead of former President Donald Trump, who banned federal agencies in 2020 from offering diversity training on racial and gender biases.
Trump鈥檚 ban was rescinded by President Joe Biden, but critical race theory became a lightning rod for conservatives. The theory is rarely taught in K-12 schools, but the term has become a catchall for . Conservatives say it's used to make white people believe they are inherently racist.
Critical race theory has made its way into proposed legislation of 44 states, including 18 that have passed laws, said Robert Kim, executive director of the Education Law Center. Florida was a frontrunner.
鈥淭hese laws are inducing chaos and confusion in public schools, and that may be part of the point,鈥� Kim said. He said culture war policies have coincided with school voucher policies as part of what he calls a 鈥渕ulti-pronged attack on public education." DeSantis鈥� campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The DeSantis administration has steadily enforced its law. The state education department initially blocked more than 40% of math textbooks that were submitted by publishers to the state for review last year, saying they violated on critical race theory. The department later showed examples that state reviewers had flagged with references to 鈥減rohibited topics鈥� like racial bias or social-emotional learning.
Many DeSantis education policies seem to target what resonates with conservative voters, said Jon Valent, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. 鈥淭hey are not grounded in any kind of theory of school reform at all,鈥� he said. He noted the influence of Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist and architect of the right-wing outrage against critical race theory, who has become a .
鈥淗e鈥檒l keep going back to these ideas as long as they continue to help create an identity for him politically that he thinks is going to benefit him in a presidential campaign," Valent said.
Removing library books
One of DeSantis鈥� most controversial policies has been the 鈥淧arental Rights in Education鈥� bill, by opponents. It banned instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in Florida classrooms 鈥渋n a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.鈥� But its impact, combined with other legislation, has rippled to the books schools offer students.
New laws in Florida have prompted schools to pull books from their shelves, according to the free-speech organization PEN America. Florida ranks second, behind Texas, as the state with the highest number of book removals, according to an April report by PEN, which tracked school book bans from July to December of 2022.
Teachers and librarians across the state say laws on discussion of race, gender and sexual orientation are so open to interpretation that they feel compelled to pull books that touch on those subjects.
DeSantis has dismissed reporting on book bans as a 鈥渉oax,鈥� and parents who have advocated for removal of books say should not be freely available to teens.
Rewriting history standards
DeSantis also has taken several steps to regulate the teaching of Black history 鈥� which other conservative leaders have emulated.
In January, he rejected a new , saying it was not 鈥渉istorically accurate鈥� and violated the Stop Woke Act 鈥� a 2022 Florida law that limits the way gender and race are discussed in classrooms and workplaces.
Following Florida's lead, Arkansas officials announced objections to the course earlier this week, but several school districts have pushed back, saying they still plan to offer the AP course. North Dakota, Mississippi and Virginia said earlier this year they plan to review the course material before deciding if it can be taught in their schools.
In July, guidelines announced by Florida鈥檚 Board of Education for teaching African American history ignited criticism from educators and historians. The standards say middle schoolers should be taught that 鈥渟laves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,鈥� a rewriting of history that .
Ahead of the return to classes, Florida also became the first state to approve the use of videos in its classrooms produced by the Prager University Foundation, a media company named for conservative radio host Dennis Prager. The company makes videos to 鈥減romote American values,鈥� according to its website.
One video depicts slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass saying that while slavery was wrong and evil, it was a compromise the Founding Fathers had to make to 鈥渁chieve something great.鈥�
The Republican primary will reveal much about the direction of the conservative agenda on education, Valent said.
鈥淎 lot of that is going to be about whether or not DeSantis鈥� quote-unquote anti-woke agenda, ," he said. "I think we鈥檙e going to see either a lot of copycat or we鈥檒l see people pulling back away from that.鈥�
