Elected vs. appointed? How FL school districts choose their superintendents can be messy
Florida Phoenix | By Christian Casale | December 19, 2023
As the sassiest state in the union, Florida loves to set herself apart from the others. One major way is how Florida school districts decide who will run their schools.
As Florida’s educational system has spent recent years increasingly wrapped up in the political culture war, a lot of ire has been turned to school superintendents. Hernando County Schools Superintendent John Stratton survived a vote of no confidence in May — during a meeting that featured Moms for Liberty activists, Proud Boys, and student protesters. Former Broward County Schools Superintendent Vikki Cartwright was fired after Gov. DeSantis appointed the majority of the school board.
Of Florida’s 67 school districts, a majority elect their superintendents. The practice is uncommon, nationally. Florida and Alabama are the only two states in the county that allow some voters to select the head of their school district.
However, the state’s ten largest school districts operate under an appointment system. And those 10 are: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Hillsborough, Orange, Duval, Pinellas, Lee, Polk, and Brevard, according to U.S. Census data.
Until Lee County elects its next superintendent in 2024, Pasco County is currently the largest school district with an elected superintendent, according to the Florida Department of Education. Overall, 38 school districts elect superintendents and 29 appoint them.
William Montford, CEO of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said in his experience, locally elected school officials tend to be less partisan than other constitutional officers — such as the sheriff, tax collector, property appraiser, or supervisors of elections.
The difference between an elected and appointed superintendent is often negligible because superintendents are either representative of the direct will of the voter or those elected to run the district.
“Those who were elected to the school board quite often reflect the opinion of that particular school district,” Montford said. “The school board members elected in Broward County, philosophically may be quite quite different than what you may have in Pasco County, or in a more conservative school district.”
Montford, a former state senator who spent decades as an educator in Florida public schools, said that districts had been trending towards switching from an appointed to an elected system for choosing their superintendents. That trend has cooled in recent years, he said, as Lee County in 2022 voted to switch to an elected system.
Montford said the FADSS has no preference on how districts find a superintendent.
“There are pros and cons of each one,” Montford said. “What fits in one particular district that may or may not fit the leadership style in another district. That’s the beauty of this system: In each individual district, the voters can decide which path they want to go on.”
The last time that the state Education Commissioner was elected, it was Charlie Crist, the most recent democratic nominee for Florida governor – who would go on to hold the offices of Florida attorney general, governor, and U.S. representative. The state revised its constitution in 2003 for the position to be appointed by the governor.
As for Hernando County, there could be a change soon on the appointment vs. elected superintendent issue. Voters will decide in a referendum in 2024 if the superintendent should be elected, according to legislation earlier this year.
