Amendment 1 opponents run Spanish radio ad warning Miami voters about partisan School Board races

Image via Florida Student Power.

Listeners tuning into Actualidad Radio in Miami are hearing a new ad warning them against letting partisan politics seep further into School Board races.

The 35-second Spanish-language spot urges a “no” vote on Amendment 1. If approved by 60% of voters this year, the measure would make School Board elections across Florida partisan beginning in 2026.

It features a conversation between three mothers discussing how just over half of the state’s third graders are reading at grade level, a troubling statistic the group that made the ad buy blames on Tallahassee intrusion of classrooms.

“As students, we are tired of partisan politics being injected into our schools while teachers are underpaid and schools are under-resourced,” a voiceover in the ad says.

“Vote NO on Amendment 1 to ensure School Board members prioritize our schools and not partisan distractions.”

The ad, which you can listen to here, was paid for by the Florida Student Power Network, which describes itself as “a growing organization that is grounded in building power in Black and Brown communities with young people leading the movement and decision-making process.”

It’s running for a week at a cost of $1,650, Miami organizer and writer Thomas Kennedy told Florida Politics, and part of a larger campaign called No On One aimed at defeating the ballot measure.

Parents, teachers, supporters and elected leaders — including Rep. Anna Eskamani and Miami-Dade County School Board member Luisa Santos — participated in rallies outside School Board buildings in Orlando and Miami on Wednesday to announce the campaign.

Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, said no bill impacting education that came from Tallahassee recently was in the best interest of students. She pointed to the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” the so-called “Parental Rights in Education” law and an expansion to Florida’s school voucher program that shifted public school funding toward for-profit private institutions as examples.

“Amendment 1 is designed to insert hyper-partisan politics into our School Boards,” she said. “We should be pushing back against partisanship, pushing back against polarization and (voting) ‘no.’”

Santos, the Miami-Dade School Board’s youngest member, said she loves that she can run in nonpartisan elections because it doesn’t prohibit voters from supporting certain candidates due to their party registration.

“It allows people from all walks of life to decide who they want to serve their community,” she said. “We will find ourselves, if this (amendment passes), with a lot more political headlines as policies instead of what families and students are asking for.”

According to Ballotpedia, Florida is one of 41 states with state laws providing for nonpartisan School Board elections. Florida’s is in Section 4 of the state’s constitution, meaning it can’t be changed without voter approval.

If Amendment 1 passes, political parties would be allowed to nominate their own candidates for School Board races, and those candidates would have their political affiliations listed beside their names on the ballot.

Supporters of the change argue voters should know as much information as possible about each candidate and that Amendment 1 would create more transparency.