Broward County schools have been bleeding taxpayer dollars for years.
Parents and teachers watched it happen.
And Ron DeSantis just dropped one word about the Broward school district that has unions scrambling to cover their tracks.
DeSantis Calls Broward Schools "A Disaster" While Pushing State Takeover
Governor Ron DeSantis didn't mince words Monday when a reporter asked him about the nation's sixth-largest school district.
"I think you did a good job of the laundry list of failures in the Broward Schools district," DeSantis told the reporter at a news conference in Davie.
Then he laid out exactly what he thought about Broward County schools.
"Honestly, it's been a disaster in many different ways. It is really run more to benefit the entrenched interests, particularly the school unions, rather than the parents and the students," DeSantis said.
The Governor suggested Education Commissioner Anastasios "Stasi" Kamoutsas or the Florida Legislature could explore taking control of the district.
"There's a handful of spots around the state where maybe thrusting some of these entities into receivership may be the best way going forward," DeSantis explained. "I think you could work things out pretty quickly."
https://twitter.com/indyfor45th47th/status/2010347643785052652?s=20
Translation: the state could seize control of Broward schools and kick out the current leadership.
DeSantis knows the district has become "impervious to reform" — his words — and parents are fed up watching their tax dollars get flushed down the drain.
The Laundry List Of Financial Disasters Piling Up
Let's break down the mess Broward schools created for themselves.
The district is facing a nearly $100 million budget gap after losing more than 11,000 students in the last year alone.
That's not a typo.
More than 11,000 families looked at what Broward schools had to offer and said "no thanks."
School Board Member Adam Cervera — appointed by DeSantis — laid out the disasters in brutal detail.
First up: a $2.6 million office lease at a Wilton Manors nonprofit while the district has dozens of under-utilized school campuses sitting empty.
Next: a completely botched procurement process for $1.2 billion in SMART Bond projects.
Voters approved that money back in 2014 to renovate schools.
That was over a decade ago.
Then came the real kick in the teeth for teachers.
A 2022 referendum promised to boost pay for teachers and lower-paid staffers.
Instead, district administrators diverted hundreds of thousands of referendum dollars to give themselves bonuses.
The highest-paid staffers got annual bonuses of up to $14,000 while teachers got scraps.
"These problems are not isolated, they reflect a pattern of long-standing financial mismanagement while our District is cutting programs, freezing hiring, and considering closing schools," Cervera said.
https://twitter.com/RedBroward/status/2010767990627709316?s=20
The district's Chief Operations Officer just resigned over the scandals.
That's how bad things got.
School Board Chair Claims Everything Is Fine While District Burns
School Board Chair Sarah Leonardi tried defending the wreckage.
She told reporters it's "inaccurate" for DeSantis to call it "a disaster."
Wait for it.
"No one here is denying the fact that we've had a chaotic history over the last few years," Leonardi admitted.
So it's not a disaster, but nobody's denying the chaos?
That's called spin.
Leonardi pointed to the district getting an A grade from the Florida Department of Education two years running.
Test scores went up.
But here's what she didn't mention: the district is closing seven schools, eliminating 1,000 positions, enacted a hiring freeze, and stopped using substitute teachers.
Teachers are now covering for each other during absences because the district can't afford subs.
That sounds like a disaster no matter how you dress it up.
Leonardi "welcomed" DeSantis to work collaboratively with them to fix inefficiencies.
Translation: please don't take over our district because we've completely lost control.
This Is What Happens When Unions Run The Show
Nathalie Lynch-Walsh served on the district's audit committee and chaired the district's advisory council until the superintendent removed her.
"I'm not surprised by the Governor's comments," Lynch-Walsh told reporters. "Things have never been worse in terms of fraud, waste, and mismanagement."
That's coming from inside the house.
DeSantis nailed it when he said Broward schools are "really run more to benefit the entrenched interests, particularly the school unions, rather than the parents and the students."
https://twitter.com/ReOpenChris/status/2010767976249573547?s=20
The unions exist to protect union jobs and union power, not to educate kids.
Florida has precedent for this kind of takeover.
In 2016, the state took over tiny Jefferson County schools after years of academic and financial disaster.
That district had only 800 students.
Broward has more than 250,000 students spread across the sixth-largest district in America.
A state takeover here would be unprecedented in scale.
But when you're losing 11,000 students a year, wasting millions on unnecessary leases, giving yourself bonuses from teacher referendum money, and sitting on 50,000 empty seats you refuse to consolidate, maybe unprecedented action is exactly what's needed.
DeSantis didn't back down when Leonardi tried to sell him on collaboration.
He's seen districts promise reform and deliver nothing too many times before.
"When people want to reform, you end up having, running into a brick wall," DeSantis said.
The brick wall is union contracts, entrenched bureaucrats, and school board members more worried about political careers than educating kids.
Receivership would demolish that wall.
Sources:
- Natalie La Roche Pietri and Sergio Bustos, "Gov. Ron DeSantis: Broward school district 'a disaster.' Suggests state takeover may be necessary," WLRN Public Media, January 12, 2026.
- "DeSantis floats state takeover of Broward schools after saying it has been a 'disaster' dealing with district issues," Local 10 News, January 12, 2026.
- Briana Trujillo and Julia Bagg, "DeSantis says Broward County Public Schools are a 'disaster,' suggests state takeover," NBC 6, January 12, 2026.
- Anthony Man and Scott Travis, "DeSantis declares Broward School District 'disaster,' and says placing it in receivership might be needed," Sun Sentinel, January 12, 2026.
