Disputes over what teachers can teach and what books students can read have long dominated headlines and education discussions. That's why this week, we take a deep look inside Florida’s Sarasota County, which has become an “underground lab” for some hard-right education policies. In her piece, co-published in Vanity Fair, reporter Kathryn Joyce explores the transformation of a high-flying school district into one overrun by politics. The superintendent was ousted and the school board has been fighting over book bans, “woke audits,” anti-LGBTQ+ policies and much more, contributing to staffing and hiring challenges, a budding exodus of left-leaning people from the county and fears that destroying public education is the ultimate endgame.
