Henry Mack

Locals on social media and at the news conference criticized the governor for overlooking the damage in Milton, which has a population of fewer than 12,000 people.

They also took issue with Education Commissioner Henry Mack's push to reopen schools quickly after the storm struck.

Schools closed before the storm swept through the region last Friday and have been scrambling to make needed repairs to facilities while awaiting power restoration.

DeSantis pushed back while urging residents to be patient.

Florida's Department of Education says the goal is to make sure students do not have access to material that violates Florida law or is inappropriate for their age.

Education Commissioner Henry Mack in the memo said that districts should not rely on parents to identify potentially inappropriate material in schools.

The state also cited a required training program for personnel involved in selecting and maintaining library materials.

That training addresses Florida's law prohibiting the distribution of harmful materials to minors.

Back here at home, Florida is fighting a quieter battle over its schools.

The state's education commissioner, Henry Mack, told every school district to keep sexually explicit material away from kids or lose state money.

In Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, sexual content sat in high school libraries until hundreds of titles were pulled for review.

This month, parents were back at the school board reading passages from more books, including one they say described a sexual situation between an adult and a child.

Go focus on why your child can't read.

Megan, I want to ask you, I mean, just kind of going back to that conversation about the school education commissioner, Henry Mack, you know, he has basically sent this memo to school districts saying if, you know, you should be looking at other school districts, you should be cross-checking your list of banned books against other districts.

banned books.

And, you know, two of the districts that he mentioned specifically were Clay and Nassau, which are area counties.

Governor DeSantis has done a phenomenal job.

Henry Mack is doing a great job.

Uh, Mr.

Petty, who's over the Florida Board of Education, he's doing a great job as well.

And I thought we weren't going to be determining students' acceptance or rejection based on identity.

Florida Commissioner of Education Henry Mack and others who support the ban say state tax dollars should prioritize legal U.S. residents and citizens.

The Florida Department of Education declined WLRN's request to interview Mack.

ICE did not respond to requests for comment.

And the statistics are just overwhelming.

And I want to point out that we will be having Dr. Henry Mack, the new Florida Commissioner of Education, in this studio in October.

And he's going to spend most of an hour here taking your questions.

It's not a time for grandstanding.

The survey has stirred vigorous debate about who bears the responsibility for safeguarding the civic goods of higher education.

Florida Education Commissioner Henry Mack, who supports the inquiry, argues that colleges were founded to form free citizens, not serve ideological capture.

Vincent Rougeau, president of the College of the Holy Cross, has a different view.

We are being put into an antagonistic relationship with our own government around something that we do as a civic contribution, he told me.