DeSantis keeps Corcoran in education role: Board of Governors

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday tapped previous condition training commissioner Richard Corcoran to provide on the condition college system’s Board of Governors.

The Board of Governors oversees Florida’s 12 state universities and is tasked with these kinds of duties as adopting rules made to have out state rules relevant to increased training.

Corcoran, a former Republican Household speaker, served a few yrs as the state’s prime education and learning official overseeing Florida’s community-college and college units. In the course of his time at the helm of the state education department, Corcoran was a shut ally of DeSantis on contentious problems these as efforts to prevent school districts from enacting mask prerequisites throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and to bar vital race theory from public-faculty curriculum.

Corcoran also was a essential determine in the state’s conclusion to reopen schools in the early days of the pandemic, which DeSantis for the past two years has touted as a significant political victory.

In March, Corcoran declared that he would be stepping down as education commissioner at the finish of April to “return to personal daily life.” Point out Sen. Manny Diaz, a Hialeah Republican, will substitute Corcoran as education and learning commissioner commencing Wednesday.

“Like the rest of the country, Florida’s school districts have experienced to temperature some of the biggest issues they have at any time seasoned more than the previous two decades, and I couldn’t believe of a better governor to serve,” Corcoran explained in a March 10 assertion asserting his resignation from the commissioner publish.

DeSantis explained the point out became an “education juggernaut” and chief in innovation under the previous Household speaker’s leadership.

Corcoran’s March resignation announcement on the Office of Education’s web site mentioned a amount of “historic schooling reforms” reached underneath his tenure.

The reforms incorporated the state’s “largest enlargement to educational choice possibilities,” the Legislature appropriating document funding concentrations for public education and learning and the launch of a civics and debate initiative for center and substantial university college students.

Considering the fact that leaving the training publish, Corcoran has joined the Continental Strategy lobbying organization. The firm’s internet site states that it specializes in “advising our consumers on a extensive assortment of difficulties,” which includes “analyzing U.S. policies in Latin The united states.”

Corcoran, an legal professional, is a graduate of Saint Leo College who acquired his legislation diploma from Regent University.

Rumors experienced swirled that Corcoran was angling for a career as president of a state university, as a few universities — the College of Florida, Florida Intercontinental College and Florida Gulf Coast University — currently are trying to find new leaders.

Corcoran previous summer season utilized to be president of Florida Point out College, drawing intensive media attention to the school’s search for a chief. Corcoran’s candidacy drew opposition from faculty associates who argued that he was not skilled for the occupation.

The college in the long run employed Richard McCullough, a former vice provost for investigate at Harvard.

This story was initially printed May well 27, 2022 6:54 PM.