The U.S. Department of Education should respond to requests for comment on how federal funds are being used in Florida. After all, the far-right seeks to abolish the department.
-Angela Valenzuela
Federal grant pays $126K salary of Florida official who pushes DeSantis education agenda
Gov. Ron DeSantis holds a press conference at Boggy Creek Elementary School in Osceola County on Monday, Nov. 30, 2020. The Florida Department of Education, part of the DeSantis’ administration, has a new office that is focused on reaching out to conservative school board members and groups. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)
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A new Florida Department of Education employee who’s reaching out to conservative school board members makes $126,000 a year, a salary funded by a federal grant designed to boost “well-rounded educational opportunities,” health and safety and effective use of technology.
Terry Stoops was tapped in April to head the department’s new office of Academically Successful and Resilient Districts. Most of his contacts during his first months on the job were to school board members who’d been endorsed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and representatives of conservative groups, his emails and calendar show.
In April, for example, he met several school board members at a “Learn Right” summit in Sarasota spearheaded by a founder of Moms for Liberty, the conservative group launched in Florida and focused on schools.
He emailed more than a dozen school board members endorsed by the governor in the 2022 election cycle and others who had the backing of Moms for Liberty, including Alicia Farrant, elected to the Orange County School Board in November.
And in May, Stoops met with the Herzog Foundation; its goal is “Advancing Christian Education.”
The education department did not respond to several requests for information about Stoops’ role or how his work meshed with the purpose of the federal grant. In an email, spokeswoman Cassie Palelis only said Stoops was a contract employee “offering day-to-day guidance and best practices” to school board members and superintendents.
After this story published online Friday, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz responded on X, formerly Twitter, with “Cry More!”
The U.S. Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment on Florida’s use of the federal funds.
DeSantis, who is running for president, told Fox News in June that if elected he would try to abolish the federal education department and other agencies. If Congress would not approve doing that, “I’m going to use those agencies to push back against woke ideology and against the leftism we see creeping into all institutions of American life,” he said in that interview on June 28.
