Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday tapped previous point out schooling 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 this kind of duties as adopting regulations developed to carry out point out legal guidelines associated to increased education.
Corcoran, a former Republican Home speaker, served a few many years as the state’s top instruction formal overseeing Florida’s public-college and faculty systems. In the course of his time at the helm of the state education and learning section, Corcoran was a shut ally of DeSantis on contentious troubles these types of as attempts to prevent university districts from enacting mask prerequisites for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and to bar critical race principle from community-faculty curriculum.
Corcoran also was a essential determine in the state’s final decision to reopen schools in the early times of the pandemic, which DeSantis for the previous two years has touted as a important political victory.
In March, Corcoran declared that he would be stepping down as schooling commissioner at the finish of April to “return to private life.” Condition Sen. Manny Diaz, a Hialeah Republican, will change Corcoran as training commissioner beginning Wednesday.
“Like the relaxation of the country, Florida’s faculty districts have experienced to temperature some of the finest difficulties they have ever professional more than the previous two decades, and I could not assume of a improved governor to provide,” Corcoran claimed in a March 10 statement announcing his resignation from the commissioner submit.
DeSantis stated the state turned an “education juggernaut” and chief in innovation under the previous Residence speaker’s management.
Corcoran’s March resignation announcement on the Office of Education’s web-site detailed a variety of “historic education reforms” realized underneath his tenure.
The reforms involved the state’s “largest growth to instructional alternative options,” the Legislature appropriating record funding degrees for public education and the launch of a civics and debate initiative for center and high school pupils.
Given that leaving the training put up, Corcoran has joined the Continental Tactic lobbying organization. The firm’s web page suggests that it specializes in “advising our consumers on a broad selection of concerns,” which include “analyzing U.S. insurance policies in Latin The usa.”
Corcoran, an lawyer, is a graduate of Saint Leo University who obtained his regulation diploma from Regent University.
Rumors had swirled that Corcoran was angling for a work as president of a condition university, as three universities — the University of Florida, Florida International College and Florida Gulf Coastline University — at present are searching for new leaders.
Corcoran past summer time used to be president of Florida Condition College, drawing powerful media interest to the school’s look for for a leader. Corcoran’s candidacy drew opposition from school associates who argued that he was not certified for the position.
The college in the long run hired Richard McCullough, a previous vice provost for investigate at Harvard.
This story was originally published May 27, 2022 6:54 PM.