Jacob Oliva, a senior chancellor at the Florida Department of Education and a former Flagler County superintendent who maintains family ties locally, will be the next Arkansas secretary of education in incoming Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s administration.
“He is a leader who has proven himself in the fight to empower parents and implement bold education reforms under Governor @RonDeSantisFL and we are ready to transform Arkansas education,” Sanders wrote in a tweet Thursday. DeSantis is expected to be a candidate for president in the 2024 election.
Oliva, 48, a former principal at Flagler Palm Coast High School who had his first teaching job in the Flagler district, was appointed superintendent in Flagler in 2014. He launched the district’s flagship programs in almost every school, a program designed to give students hands-on knowledge of career paths such as health care, public safety and the law. He also instituted the program that resulted in a one-to-one ratio between students and their own, school-issued computers.
He replaced Mary Jane Tappen as the state Department of Education’s executive vice chancellor for K-12 public schools in 2017 when Rick Scott was governor, rising to chancellor under Gov. Ron DeSantis. But he was passed over for commissioner o education–the job went to Manny Diaz Jr.–and was a finalist for superintendent in the Miami Dade school district last January, but did not get the job.
All along Oliva championed and enforced the doctrinaire side of DeSantis’s education agenda, opposing mask mandates in schools, testifying in court on behalf of the administration’s case against some districts that were enforcing mask mandates, promulgating procedures that enforce book bans in public school libraries or the “don’t say gay” law restricting discussions of gender matters in lower grades and a separate law restricting discussions of race in all grades, and earlier this month warning some districts that their support policies for LGBTQ students were running afoul of “parental rights.”
The “parental rights” link is listed first on the Florida Department of Education’s website, ahead of student achievement, safety or mental health resources.
“For the last five years,” the department said in a statement on Thursday, “Senior Chancellor Oliva has been a dedicated member of the Florida Department of Education’s leadership team, including serving as interim education commissioner, and his work has helped launch Florida as the Education State.” Oliva’s replacement has not been named.
Michael Cocchiola says
He’ll help spread extremist Republican doctrine into Arkansas public schools. You know, Manifest Destiny was good for the savage natives; the Civil War was started by the evil North to destroy the deep south’s time-honored way of life; the science of creationism as opposed to the unproven theory of evolution; the civics of replacing the chaotic American democracy with a more efficient autocracy; and social studies without the word social.
Furthermore, discussions of Critical Race Theory are absolutely forbidden, even at the college and post-grad levels. And there are no racial conflicts in America… only those between the hard-working givers and lazy criminal takers. And finally, public schools are evil breeding grounds for groomers, pedos, and worse… liberals.
Our loss is Arkansas’ loss. Buh Bye, Jacob.
Bill says
O’BOY: Whay not send them, instead, the “Crowned Prince. Biden”. How BLIND can YOU BE?
Dennis C Rathsam says
Wrong again…too much democratic kool-aid pal, dont U just like someone to succeed. Time to get a grasp of reality, after all your no Dan Newlin.
qwerty says
Out of all the media assets to pick from, he’s portrayed behind bars, shackled, and in an inmate jump suit for a fundraiser lmao.
Jerome says
Every word out of her mouth is a lie. She could be the poster child for the republicrumb party along with t-rump !!!!
Deborah Coffey says
No fan of Oliva but, Arkansas ranks 39th in Education Week’s Quality Counts 2021 report. They could do worse educationally but, they’ll do even worse in every other way with the new Christo-fascist on board.
Doug says
CRT should be forbidden in schools. It’s a cancer that America doesn’t need.
Do us a favor and keep your Democratic views to yourself.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
Well spoken Mike! I see a few comments from those that fail to see facts that stare them in the face everyday.
Laurel says
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, now there’s a piece of work! I sure don’t miss that nasty, smirking, unhappy face sarcastically spitting out alternate facts! Wow, am I glad she is gone. What a mean spirit. Good luck Arkansas, your kids will be dumbing down even more.
Been There says
CRT isn’t being taught in schools. However, teaching young people to be free thinkers and challenge the institutionalized constructs should be a result of them attending school. That’s what education does, broadens the mind so that people can consider many ideologies and then form their own opinion. I think that’s what you are referring to.