LOS ANGELES and SAN FRANCISCO, CA — October 21, 2026 — Florida school board members report being surveilled, publicly shamed and threatened with removal from office and loss of funding by state officials when they voice dissenting views or resist state education directives, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and the University of San Francisco School of Education. The report was published by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) at the Indiana University School of Education.
The report, Bullied, Threatened, and Exhausted: Florida School Board Members’ Struggle to Defend Public Education (Policy Report #26-C), draws on in-depth interviews conducted between February and May 2026 with 17 sitting school board members in 11 Florida counties. Those counties together educate nearly half of the state’s public school students.
The study comes as Florida has enacted more than 20 laws, regulations, and executive directives since 2020, according to the report. They include measures affecting curriculum and instruction on race and history ( HB 7, 2022 ), library and classroom book challenges ( HB 1069, 2023 ), LGBTQ+ topics and student pronouns ( HB 1557, 2022 ; HB 1069, 2023 ), public sector unions ( SB 256, 2023 ), and universal school vouchers ( HB 1, 2023 ). The authors argue that understanding how these policies are enforced locally matters well beyond Florida, because the state’s education laws have often served as models for legislation elsewhere.
Key findings
The researchers identify three common categories of pressure that board members experienced:
The study also finds that school board attorneys, superintendents, and professional associations often reinforced state pressure, advising members to over-comply rather than protecting independent deliberation.
Personal, professional and public toll
Participants described installing home security cameras, receiving death threats and seeking therapy. Most have stopped or sharply limited their social media use, and four chose not to seek re-election because of the pressure.
Most participants (12 of 17) said they now “work behind the scenes” to avoid state scrutiny. The authors caution that this quieter approach can leave constituents, especially historically marginalized students and families, without a visible public advocate.
Board members also linked the climate to lost educational opportunities, including thousands of removed library books, dismantled equity and LGBTQ+ support programs, shuttered student clubs, delayed textbook adoptions and departing teachers and counselors. Several warned that culture-war conflict, rapid voucher expansion, and enrollment declines together pose an existential threat to Florida’s public school system.
The report notes that the most direct targeting was concentrated in larger, more Democratic-leaning districts serving more students of color. Six of the 11 districts studied, which together enroll 42% of Florida’s public school students, experienced the most severe pressure.
Importantly, nearly half of participants stressed the importance of speaking out, and others described reframing “parental rights,” refocusing debates on what is best for students, and seeking less restrictive legal interpretations with help from civil rights organizations.
Why it matters nationally
The authors describe Florida as a “canary in the coal mine” for public education. Because Florida’s education laws have been replicated by other states and local boards, they argue that documenting these tactics, recognizing similar patterns elsewhere, and identifying effective responses is critical for policymakers, educators and communities nationwide.
“Florida has long been a laboratory for education policy that other states adopt. Policymakers, educators and voters elsewhere should be paying close attention, because the pressures these board members describe could easily become the playbook for school governance across the country,” said Huriya Jabbar, Ph.D., professor of education policy, USC Rossier School of Education.
"Florida is often a canary in the coal mine for education policymaking nationally. What this study shows is that the canary is not well. In addition to facing budget pressures, school closures, and a universal and unregulated voucher program that drains public funds from public schools, Florida School Board members have been subjected to a hostile work environment where they are personally targeted and threatened by state officials to keep their head down and not speak out. In a time when public discourse and sound deliberation over education is so important, top-down politics and bullying is muzzling local voices. My hope is that this study can help communities everywhere to understand these tactics and guard against them,” said Danfeng Soto-Vigil Koon, J.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the leadership studies department in the University of San Francisco School of Education and faculty director of the Center for Humanizing Education and Research.
About the study
Researchers invited 21 current Florida school board members to participate; 17 agreed. Participants represented nine majority-Republican and eight majority-Democratic counties; 88% identified as women and 35% as Black, Latino, or Asian. Interviews lasted 60 to 75 minutes and were coded thematically, and factual claims were checked against news coverage, public social media posts, and state documents. The authors note the sample is small and call for further research on how widespread these tactics are.
The report was written by Danfeng Koon, JD, PhD, and Kiah Combs, MA, of the University of San Francisco, and Huriya Jabbar, PhD, and Elizabeth Grubb, BA, of the University of Southern California.
The full report is available at education.indiana.edu/ceep , with a PDF download .
About the USC Rossier School of Education
The USC Rossier School of Education (pronounced “ross-EAR”) is part of the University of Southern California, one of the world’s leading private research universities. Located in the heart of Los Angeles, USC offers students a rich urban environment in which to learn, as well as many international opportunities for research and study. At USC, students come from all 50 states and 110 countries, including more than 5,000 international students each academic year.
About the University of San Francisco School of Education
At the School of Education, our faculty, staff, and students are scholars and social justice advocates engaged within the diverse San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. With more than 20 masters and doctoral programs, 94 school district partnerships across the Bay Area, and a 12:1 student to faculty ratio, we welcome students who seek to make an impact in schools and communities, and who are committed to serving those most in need. The school’s mission is to act collectively to leverage our resources in ways that are driven by our Jesuit mission and responsive to our constituents’ needs.
About the publisher
The Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at the Indiana University School of Education, which published this report, conducts and publishes research and evaluation to inform education policy and practice.