What school board election results say about DeSantis-era education politics

State of play: A GOP-backed constitutional amendment that sought to make school board races partisan failed Tuesday, but it got majority support — 55% — from voters, similar to the abortion and marijuana ballot measures. 

• On the other hand, between the August primary and Tuesday's general election, 13 out of the 23 school board candidates endorsed by DeSantis lost.

Catch up quick: Friction over how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic in schools thrust education into the spotlight, sparking what supporters called the parental rights movement and a flurry of laws restricting curriculum and books.

• But this year, abortion and marijuana at the state level and the economy and immigration nationally put education in the backseat. 

Case in point: Close to $100 million was spent on ad campaigns for and against the abortion rights amendment, per AdImpact, which tracks political advertising spending. 

• The platform reported no money spent on campaigns surrounding the partisan school board amendment, labeled Amendment 1 on ballots.
• "We've got so much stuff going on," DeSantis said in August about why Republicans put fewer resources into school board races, per Politico. 

Between the lines: Voter interest in education politics waxes and wanes over time, University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett told Axios. 

• But there's also a sense that a lot of voters "would prefer not to have the bitter partisanship on school boards if they could help it," Jewett said.

What they're saying: To Damaris Allen, executive director of Families for Strong Public Schools, this election cycle speaks more to DeSantis' waning influence on education — not that voters were distracted by other, perhaps bigger, issues. 

• The abortion and weed amendments "weren't on the ballot in the primary [and] we saw a similar outcome," Allen told Axios, pointing to the 11 DeSantis-endorsed candidates who lost in August. 

The intrigue: Tuesday's result also saw strong support for public schools, with 21 of 22 local referendums to increase funding for public schools passing across the state, Allen said. 

• "We saw a clear message that people value public schools, and that hasn't historically been the message from the governor's office," she said.
• DeSantis backed repeated expansions of Florida's school voucher program, which leaves less funding available to local school districts. 

The other side: DeSantis' office did not respond to Axios' request for comment.

Zoom in: In Pinellas County, the same electorate that swung 52%-47% for President-elect Trump voted against DeSantis-backed candidate Stacy Geier. 

• The same percentage of voters that backed Trump cast ballots for Katie Blaxberg, who positioned herself as a moderate. 
• "There may not be a better example of moderate conservatism vs. MAGA extremism than this race," Florida political blogger Jason Garcia wrote.
• Two other candidates running with Geier to flip the board to a conservative majority also lost their races in the August primary.

The bottom line: "There's an argument that knowing [a candidate's] party will help you know someone's politics," Allen said. 

• "I don't think that a yes on Amendment 1 was an endorsement of the contentious climate that's been created from inviting politics into the classroom."