Daytona Beach, FL - Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a new bill that will implement school board member term limits and require schools to list all of their materials online.
DeSantis made the announcement Friday morning (March 25) from the campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
The legislation—HB 1467—will limit school board members to terms of 12 years, a step up from the original eight-year restriction. The new clock starts running after the 2022 election cycle, and members would be allowed to serve through 2034. A more controversial portion of the bill requires school districts to list all library and instructional materials in use in an online database. DeSantis says it will give parents a chance to review their child’s materials.
“If that’s something that’s going to be used, then that’s something a parent would have the right to understand and know that’s going out there,” said DeSantis.
DeSantis also invited two mothers up to the podium. One of them was Rachael Cohen, who made the news in 2020 when she was removed from a Volusia County School Board meeting for not wearing a face mask. She and six other people were removed and trespassed by police, no arrests were made. At Friday’s conference, she said she discovered explicit reading material in the libraries of the schools her children attended.
“We’re now paying attention to the school board, their meetings, their agenda, their curriculum,” said Cohen. “And so many other concerns are coming to the surface now that we are paying attention.”
The signing of this bill marks yet another education proposal approved during the legislative session that gives parent’s increased control and access over their child’s education. Also signed this year was Florida’s Parental Rights in Education billl, known by its vocal opposition as “Don’t Say Gay.” That bill has yet to be signed, but DeSantis has been outspoken about his support for the legislation.
