Broward County has recently been ground zero in Governor DeSantis war on public education. Not only has Governor DeSantis now filled what was a School Board that was 9-0 Democratic with five appointed GOPers, he’s done so in a callous way, bucking the precedents set by previous GOP Governor’s who appointed more moderate GOPers who had some institutional backing in the county.

District 6 is a focal point in the ongoing battle. Lori Rich Levinson is retiring and the race to replace has been temporarily upended by DeSantis suspension of her. In Steven Julian, a genuinely caring candidate that will enhance the macro-thinking and perspectives of the Broward School District. The race is critical as Julian faces very dangerous opposition.

Julian will add a welcome voice to the discussion of mental health, suicide and overdoses which are all areas he has concentrated on in his own studies, and work.

His overall approach is focused on providing safe, supportive, nurturing schools with quality education for all. Public schools face financial and socio-economic challenges that many private institutions do not. There has been a push over recent years to divert public funds to private institutions, which implies that the public school system is incapable of reaching the same standards and quality of private schools. Julian is committed to protecting public education and promoting a progressive, forward-looking vision for Broward Schools.

But even more dangerous, is that Brenda Fam, a bonafide extremist has made the runoff. Fam, is backed by Moms for Liberty-styled activists and is the type of new-fangled DeSantistan candidate that’s overrunning the state. Her campaign has resorted to misrepresentation and scare tactics which claim among other things that Broward Schools distribute pornographic materials. She’s also advocated for the usual school “choice” schemes that divert money from community-based public schools to distant private ones.

Our writers will have much more coverage of this race in the next two months. As a publication we strongly endorse Steven Julian in Broward School Board District 6.