School board races are increasingly political. Miami-Dade is no different

AXIOS | By Sommer Brugal | August 20, 2024

Miami-Dade’s School Board has become decisively conservative since 2022 with the election of two Gov. Ron DeSantis-backed candidates and two of his appointees who joined later.

Why it matters: Today’s school board elections will decide if the public wants to double down on conservative policies or if the pendulum swings in the opposite direction.

• School boards are tasked with creating policies for the district, directing everything from budgets and curriculum changes to determining whether a school should close.

Case in point: For the second time, DeSantis weighed in on local school board elections, which are nonpartisan, endorsing Mary Blanco, who he appointed in 2023.

• Florida Democrats are backing two candidates here: Luisa Santos, who was elected in 2020, and Max Tuchman.
• DeSantis last year placed Santos on his target list.

Zoom out: In November, voters will decide in a referendum whether school board candidates should disclose their party affiliation in future elections.

State of play: Two incumbents were automatically re-elected without opposition: Danny Espino (District 5), who DeSantis appointed in 2022, and Steve Gallon III (District 1), who’s been on the board since 2016.

• In District 3, five candidates are running to replace Lucia Baez-Geller, who is running in the primary to face incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar.
• In District 7, Blanco is facing challenges from Javier Perez and Tuchman.
• In District 9, Santos is facing Kimberly Beltran.

Go deeper: District 3 candidate’s massive war chest

The intrigue: In District 3, candidate Martin Karp has raised nearly $795,000, an exorbitant amount for a school board race. (Tuchman, the second-highest fundraiser, attracted just over $300,000.)

• Karp, who served on the school board for four terms, ended his reelection bid in 2020 after a district investigation found his office helped after-school programs get free use of public school facilities. He denied the allegations.

The big picture: The Miami-Dade school board’s conservative majority has been quick to fall in line with DeSantis’ overhaul of public education.

• It was first to consider implementing a classical education model.
• It prompted a state-wide directive from Education Commissioner Manny Diaz to review curriculum for social-emotional learning.
• And it could become one of the first districts to add school chaplain programs.

The bottom line: If District 7 flips (and District 3 and 9 remain blue), the DeSantis-aligned members could be in the minority, imperiling the conservative policy pushes.