Nothing says white-male privilege like the outrageous salary of New College president | Opinion
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If there were any fears of political repercussions, the con game a clique of Florida GOP leaders are pulling with their agenda to “transform” education wouldn’t be so obvious.
They would, at least, do a better job of hiding it.
They would raid the public coffers to funnel public-education dollars to political allies and private education enterprises with more care about appearances.
But Florida voters wrote Republicans a blank check to remake the state’s education system in their conservative image — and at least one grifter is getting a big payday out of it: Richard Corcoran.
Despite dropping out of the state’s top-ranked school, the University of Florida, Corcoran has held all of these high-profile political jobs: Pasco County legislator. Florida House Speaker. Education commissioner during Gov. Ron DeSantis’ first term.
Outrageous paycheck
As a result of the culture-war circus Corcoran helped DeSantis stage — most recently, giving the once-reputable liberal-arts New College of Florida in Sarasota a conservative makeover — the influential politician has been appointed its interim president.
His salary: $699,000 to lead a small school that has fewer than 700 students.
And if he accomplishes the goals established for the troubled Honors College school, he’ll get a bonus of up to 15% of his annual salary.
Nothing screams “white-male privilege” more blatantly than Corcoran’s outrageous paycheck. It’s more than twice that of his better-qualified predecessor, Patricia Okker, fired in the GOP’s hunt for liberals.
Plus, he’ll earn another $104,850 a year in retirement compensation. He’ll get $84,000 a year for housing and a $12,000 car allowance. Again, the perks are more than double what Okker’s were.
And he’ll make more than $1 million if he still holds the job by the time his contract ends on Sept. 1, 2024.
Not bad for a Canadian brought to Florida at age 11 and who, according to his biography, went to religious schools you never heard of: Catholic liberal-arts Saint Leo College in Florida and Christian Regent University in Virginia, founded by Pat Robertson in 1977.
Payback & conflict
But money follows political complicity — and he’s a can-do man.
This is Corcoran’s reward for masterminding the educational component of DeSantis’ intrusion into our lives to give conservatives their anti-Black, anti-gay, anti-books, anti-woman curriculum, otherwise known as “parental rights.”
This isn’t Corcoran’s first cash-out.
As legislator and then House speaker, he helped fill charter schools’ pockets with state money that isn’t bound to the same strict regulations as public schools. His wife, who owned a Pasco County private school, was one of the beneficiaries of his votes to shift tax dollars to private education.
His connections have brought him to this place.
He ran political campaigns. He worked for legislators. He was hired as counsel by politicians (took him three years to pass the Florida Bar after he graduated from law school at Regent). He was chief of staff to Marco Rubio when the legislator used the GOP credit-card for personal reasons.
And he became a pal of DeSantis’ education commissioner, Manny Diaz Jr., who also made the most of his time as a state lawmaker, drawing a six-figure salary as chief executive officer of a Doral charter school owned by the for-profit Academica — while passing legislation worth millions of dollars to his employer.
The two politicians, and a handful of other lawmakers with ties to charter and private schools, have been in cahoots for years. They’re partners in funneling taxpayer dollars to private institutions — and by profiting from the industry they regulate (or vote to keep unregulated, so they can benefit from public funds).
READ MORE: Some of your legislators are profiting at the expense of public education
It’s all so incestuous.
If this were the long-running series “The Sopranos,” Corcoran might play Tony and Díaz Jr. his consigliere, Silvio.
But, like Gov. Rick Scott before him, DeSantis is running the show to destroy public education and leading the attacks on teaching Black history and banning books for all kinds of secretive agenda reasons.
As he did during the Republican takeover of Miami Dade College in 2019, DeSantis appointed the board of trustees who gifted Corcoran the highly paid interim president’s post at New College.
Follow the money and the motivation to favor one group — religious fundamentalists — and quash others who refuse to fit the mold. The goal? Personal profit.
Seen in this light, Florida’s culture wars — packaged and sold as righteous ideological debate between conservatism vs. liberalism — are so much more than one man’s ride to the White House.
They’re tools to make a buck off of our children’s education — or lack thereof.
