Terry Stoops Quietly Exits the Florida Department of Education

Terry Stoops, Director of Florida Department of Education’s Office of Academically Successful and Resilient Districts (ASRD), has left much the way he came in… secretly and very, very quietly.

In the summer of 2023, a series Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (fftrp.org), a group formed to fight book bans in Florida’s schools, revealed a newly created office in the FLDOE whose purpose appeared to be to supporting the co-hort of DeSantis endorsed, conservative school board members elected in 2022. Terry L. Stoops was discovered to be the newly hired Director of ASRD, though his name did not appear in the state database.

During his first year as Director, he attended conservative-education events, presented at the revived Florida Conservative Coalition of School Board Members’ (FCCSBM) annual meeting and his focus appeared to be on aligning district leadership and school board members with Governor DeSantis’ conservative education agenda. Though the stated mission of his office was described as facilitating “partnerships with district leaders,” his work seemed to focused almost exclusively on those with a specific ideological bent.

His office and his $126,000 annual salary were reported to be funded by a federally-supported grant (through the University of South Florida) meant for student health, safety, technology and “well-rounded educational opportunities.”

The secrecy around his office raised concerns about transparency and accountability to which then Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr. replied “Cry More.”

In September 2023, the Editorial Board at the Sun Sentinel wrote:

“None of these actions will likely surprise Floridians who have followed the DeSantis administration. They know he diverts public money to serve his political agenda and his propensity for hiring inexperienced far-right propagandists…The limited Terry Stoops story reveals more about the outsized, arrogant thirst for secrecy that infests state government, and the utter disregard for Floridians’ rights to know how his office and others spent our money.”

Now, it appears Stoops has quietly left the FLDOE in August and is now serving as Director of State Affairs for Defending Education, previously known as Parents Defending Education (PDE). Defending Education is an organization that self-identifies as a grassroots effort, but their connections to the Koch network and conservative dark money affiliates says otherwise. They are part of the well-funded effort to privatize public education.

Sounds like a great fit for Mr. Stoops.

Stoops’s quiet departure leaves lingering questions about the role and purpose of the ASRD office — and about how federal and state resources were used to advance a politically aligned education agenda under the guise of district “resilience.” His departure may close one chapter in Florida, but Tallahassee’s broader effort to politicize and privatize public education will undoubtedly continue.