conservatives parents say they were duped into voting for the DeSantis Educ purge in full swing

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/11/30/desantis-backed-education-purge-begins-after-school-board-takeovers-florida

DeSantis-Backed Education Purge Begins After School Board Takeovers in Florida
"The new playbook of total ideological control is in full swing," said one free expression advocate.

Despite outcry from parents, teachers, and students, newly elected right-wing school board members in Sarasota County, Florida on Tuesday became the latest allies of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to oust a school superintendent over the district's adherence to public health guidance during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dozens of community members gathered at a school board meeting in Sarasota County on Tuesday evening to support Brennan Asplen, the superintendent of schools since 2020, whose contract was the subject of the meeting.

The board met the same day new members, including Chair Bridget Ziegler, were sworn in. Ziegler, a co-founder of right-wing group Moms for Liberty, was one of two dozen school board candidates who received an endorsement from DeSantis during the midterm elections. The majority of those candidates, who received $1,000 contributions from the governor, won their elections.

At the meeting, members condemned Asplen "for not pushing back on the mask mandate" that was in place for three weeks in 2021 after the school board voted 3-2 in favor of the mandate, making Sarasota County the first in the state to defy DeSantis' law blocking Covid-19 mitigation measures.

On Tuesday the board ultimately voted 4-1 in favor of negotiating a separation agreement with Asplen, after another board member, Thomas Edwards, warned the move would be a "carbon copy" of a similar ouster in Berkeley County, South Carolina earlier this month.

Link to tweet

[ananda]

1. conservative is seriously stupid these days

and blinded by their own seriously
stupid ideology

they deserve what they get

i am sorry for the kids though

[FloridaBlues]

2. The voters were aware of how right wing the candidates were when they voted

Candidates made no bones about their views.

[yardwork]

3. What did they think would happen?

[Freethinker65]

4. Dumbing down public education creates undereducated future voters

Non-critical thinking voters that are easier to manipulate by fear. That has always been the goal.

Wealthy Floridians will send their children to private schools that offer decent educations thus giving their kids an advantage. Retirees, enjoying Florida's tax breaks, don't care too much as their kids are often raising their kids (retiree's grandkids) in States that still value education.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Duped? Really?

They vote for anybody with an "R" after their name, without bothering to check a single thing.
They weren't duped. They're not victims. They are accomplices.

[area51]

19. +1 n/t

[Johnny2X2X]

6. GOP thinks they have some master plan to stop progress

They think that children are learning compassion and tolerance in school, and that compassion and tolerance start them down the path to being Democrats. So they have this big master plan to take over school boards to get rid of all the compassion, common decency, and tolerance. It's so stupid, it won't work, and it will do nothing but make children more predisposed to be good people, and thus Democrats.

[StormKing]

17. But that plan has worked in American and elsewhere before

It's not strange or new.

Underestimating or just assuming we'll get great results from it is not wise...

[Timeflyer]

7. The plan to destroy PUBLIC education and PRIVATIZE schools begins.

The tax dollars spent on public schools is too tempting for conservative GOP dark money groups to leave laying around--they'll make use of it by buying politicians who'll do their bidding and control curriculum content (like have Hillsdale College design civics and American history standards--FL). This trend will spread--it's now vital everywhere for voters to be informed and involved in previously non-partisan, boring school board races.

Meanwhile, the quality of instruction will suffer as highly qualified teachers leave profession--the students, future voters, are the ultimate victims

[Zorro]

11. Bridget Ziegler, chair of the Sarasota School District BoD,

not only is a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, but also doesn't send her kids to Sarasota public schools.

But she's a registered Republican and closely affiliated with the Proud Boys, and that seems to be what matters to the majority of Sarasota voters.

[hatrack]

8. Womp Womp

.

[hildegaard28]

9. Any chance

The citizens can recall these fools?

[Initech]

10. Stop watching Fox News!!!!

Of course they were duped - it's all part of Rupert Murdoch's master plan to destroy public education. Fox News isbad for you!

[Wounded Bear]

12. The wailing of the willfully ignorant...

[Hortensis]

13. Sarasota's a really nice city. I hope this is going to be part

of a big awakening. Slow learners, though. He's shown what he is many times.

[Deep State Witch]

20. There's A Lot of RWNJs in Sarasota County

Yes, Sarasota is a nice city. But, don't forget that there's the whole of Sarasota County, including Venice. The Venice area has really been taken over by RWNJs. I mean, we always used to joke when we would visit that the Sarasota County Democratic Committee could meet in a broom closet. But the county has really been taken over by the MAGATs in recent years.

[Hortensis]

21. Such a shame. :) I also know

what starts happening demographically just a couple miles inland as the high-end coastal communities leave off and the family neighborhoods and interior swamplands begin. Still, I'd live in Sarasota.

[tishaLA]

14. More like doped into it

As in a bunch of dopes electing even dopier, and therefore more dangerous, people to represent them.

[tishaLA]

15. I'm trying to imagine getting upset

That kids were required to mask up *for three weeks* as a way of protecting them and their teachers. Craziness.

[edhopper]

16. When you are too stupid to think

you aren't duped.

[mcar]

18. What did they think would happen?