Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
- Florida is the No. 1 state for education, says an annual ranking from US News & World Report.
- DeSantis has made education policy one of his top priorities, receiving backlash over curriculum bans.
- The state's teacher's union warned Florida schools wouldn't stay in the top tier.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has aggressively made far-reaching changes to education policy in Florida during his time in office, whether it be on curriculum, diversity initiatives, or leadership overhauls.
He frequently faces outside backlash over such moves, including from Democratic governors. But on Tuesday, Florida came in first for education as part of the annual Best States rankings from US News & World Report. It displaced former No. 1 New Jersey and No. 2 Massachusetts, after coming in third during last year's rankings.
As governor, DeSantis moved to strip diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from higher ed. He also replaced leaders at the New College of Florida, a public, liberal arts school in Sarasota. These and other factors that have generated national headlines and resistance for DeSantis, such as book removals from school libraries or restrictions on how LGBTQ topics can be taught, weren't measured in the US News rankings.
Instead, Florida's No. 1 ranking in higher education — in addition to its No. 1 ranking in education overall — is thanks to its low tuition and debt, as well as high college-graduation rates.
During press conferences throughout Florida, DeSantis frequently boasts about how he, with support of the GOP-controlled legislature, kept the costs of public colleges steady by refusing to increase tuition. He also signed a bill into law that allows certain students who have grandparents in Florida to receive in-state tuition.
DeSantis' education agenda has led to a lot of attention from conservatives and backlash from liberals, helping the governor consistently rank in second place in polling for a hypothetical 2024 Republican presidential primary behind former President Donald Trump.
DeSantis hasn't said whether he'll run, but he's widely expected to mount a campaign sometime after the Florida legislature finishes its lawmaking session this month.
Alex Lanfranconi, spokesman for Florida's education department, told Insider that the US News results were "no surprise."
"Governor Ron DeSantis has eliminated common core, protected parental rights, provided historic teacher salary increases, abolished woke indoctrination from the classroom, and exposed the DEI scam in higher education," he said. "The results speak for themselves. The Florida education model works."
The state rankings released Tuesday looking at higher education are separate from US News Best Colleges, the well-known rankings that have received varying degrees of criticism over the years but still remain widely used by prospective students and their families.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Florida ranked 14th for grade school rankings
Looking at Pre-K-12, Florida's US News rankings had solid scores in high-school graduation rates, though the state came in 14th overall when adding in measures such as college readiness, reading and math scores, and preschool enrollment.
The rankings do not take pandemic-related factors into account, such as factoring in when schools reopened, Jeanette Perez Colby, US News spokeswoman, told Insider. DeSantis made school openings a key platform during his 2022 reelection race and on his national book tour.
"Florida was a refuge of sanity when the world went mad," DeSantis often says.
Among DeSantis' other most well-known education policies are bills he signed into law to limit the way race, gender, and sexuality are taught in public schools. He has defended the changes on the grounds that parents should have a say on what their children learn, though it has led to confusion in certain districts.
The DeSantis administration rejected math books for "indoctrination," as well as an AP course on African American history, which DeSantis said imposed "a political agenda" with its content on queer theory and prison abolition.
The governor also expanded vouchers for families to pay for private or charter schools, while public school educators in Florida lament that they're deeply underfunded and understaffed.
Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar panned the US News analysis as a "narrow view of education" and predicted curriculum restrictions and book removals would "impact student scores in the years ahead." Florida ranks 44th in the US for spending per student on public schools, according to the Florida Education Association, which is the state's teacher's union.
Some of the other factors the US News rankings measured were SAT and ACT scores when the DeSantis administration is considering shopping around for a standardized-testing alternative.
"Gov. DeSantis may use this ranking as a political badge of honor, but his own actions over the past two years will likely drag Florida down," Spar said.
The Sunshine State came in No. 10 in the rankings overall for Best States, when factoring measures such as crime, the economy, and healthcare, where the state came in 17th, 7th, and 27th, respectively. US News ranked Utah as the best state in the US, drawing from more than 70 metrics.
Florida's worst ranking, at No. 46, was in the category of "opportunity," which measures factors such as affordability, economic mobility, and racial and gender equality.