State Board of Education asserts enforcement power over Florida schools

Tampa Bay Times | By Jeffrey S. Solochek | August 21, 2025

The big story: The State Board of Education and commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas doubled down on their efforts to enforce their interpretation of parental rights during a meeting Wednesday in St. Augustine.

The board found the Alachua County school board to have violated parents’ First Amendment rights in late July, and ordered the board to correct its ways with no deviations over the next year or face financial penalties, as WCJB reports.

Kamoutsas read passages from the memoir “Trans Mission” that he told Hillsborough County schools to remove earlier this month or face possible prosecution for providing children with access to harmful materials. After citing statutes he said explain why the material is unacceptable, and saying he expected all districts to “govern themselves accordingly,” Kamoutsas praised the state’s new prosecutor and said he was “committed to working with him” on this issue.

The commissioner also spoke of how he wanted to suspend a Brevard County teacher who used a student’s preferred name without parental permission, a recommendation that the Education Practice Commission did not follow. The school district dismissed the teacher and has not rehired her, Florida Today reports.

Board members asked if they could override the commission. Kamoutsas said they have no authority to change the decision of the quasi-judicial action, for which any appeals could be filed in court, adding that he is consulting with department lawyers to see how they might rewrite the rules for the future.

Board member Daniel Foganholi used the discussion to suggest the state might need to do a better job communicating expectations to teachers, many of whom he said are working hard to do the right thing and scared of enforcement against them for mistakes.

He spoke of his own experience with his son’s teacher, who he said was reluctant to call the boy DJ because his formal paperwork said Daniel Jr.

“I want to make sure that we overcommunicate to our teachers so that we make sure they are comfortable in those situations, that they’re not scared, they’re not in fear,” he said. “I feel like a lot of teachers are paying the price for people doing the wrong thing.”

If it’s a mistake, Foganholi said, “show grace.”

Not everyone walked away from the meeting with that message. The Florida Education Association issued a statement afterward criticizing the board and commissioner for having chosen politics over students and “vilified the very educators who keep our neighborhood public schools strong.”

Some parents attending the session also signaled their dissatisfaction with the discussions and actions. They said the board should stop wasting time on “political theater” and focus on fixing crowded classrooms, low teacher pay, student academic struggles and other “real issues.”

The board meets again Sept. 24 in Fort Walton Beach.