Proposed Florida Constitutional Amendment 1 would require partisan school-board elections starting in 2026. That means candidates would carry party labels by their names on ballots.
The measure was placed on the ballot by the legislature in a partisan vote—with Republicans largely in support. However, recent polling shows the measure is struggling to clear the 60% threshold needed to pass it.
Candidates running for Leon County School Board didn’t agree on much this cycle. However, when it came to the question of whether their races should carry party affiliations, everyone said the same thing:
“Because we are dealing with children, with minors, and to me politics should have, really not be a factor,” said Leon County School Board member Laurie Lawson Cox during a WFSU Candidate Forum before August’s primary election.
“I just don’t think politics has any place in our schools,” said her failed challenger Jeremy Rogers at the same forum.
Florida previously had partisan school board races until a constitutional amendment backed by voters changed it in 1998. The ballot initiative this election cycle was prompted by a resolution from the Republican-controlled state legislature.
It was a partisan vote at the time, with every Republican in the state house and senate supporting it and all but one Democrat opposing it.
Jacksonville Democratic State Representative Angie Nixon said during debate on the bill that it will lock NPA voters out of primaries and force those looking to serve on school boards to pick a party.
“It attempts to bully folks who do not want to be part of the Republican or Democratic party to choose a side, and that is not freedom. That is not what freedom looks like,” she said.
Okaloosa Republican Representative Joel Rudman said during debate that that ship has already sailed since the COVID-19 pandemic spiked parental interest in school board politics.
“I also want us to admit that unfortunately, politics have crept everywhere into our society. So it should be no big surprise politics has made its way into local school boards,” he said.
He has a point. Both parties have endorsed their own slate of school board candidates across Florida. Partisan messaging has also played a significant role in those races.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried opposes amendment 1, yet her party put out its own slate this year. She claims they are supporting that are more non-partisan than those backed by Republicans.
“If we can get good elected officials back on these school boards that aren't going to play these culture wars, that aren't going to play the partisan politics, then we will have done our job to make sure that the right people have been elected to take these politics out of these conversations and go back to teaching our children and stop attacking our teachers,” she said.
If it passes, Florida will be the 10th state that has partisan schoolboard races in at least some of their counties. But that’s looking unlikely.
A Suffolks University and USA Today poll puts opposition to the amendment at 48% with support at 33%, far from the 60% support it would need to pass.