Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who is considering a run for president, said Sunday that elected officials dictating school curricula reeks of big government.
During an appearance on NBC News’s “Meet The Press,” Hogan illustrated a stark contrast between himself and another Republican who may enter the 2024 ring, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, on governing what is taught in schools. DeSantis, notably, took stances on keeping woke topics out of schools and not teaching young children about sexual orientation.
“I think that some of this rhetoric is … demanding that things be done a certain way — that you can’t say this, you can’t say that. We’ve got to be really careful,” Hogan said.
“I’m a small-government, common-sense conservative and, to me, it sounds like big government and authoritarian,” he added later.
WATCH: Potential GOP WH candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have made education a key issue and are cracking down on schools teaching race or gender.@LarryHogan: "I'm a small-government, common-sense conservative and, to me, it sounds like big government" pic.twitter.com/Y1Uog9WAmA
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 19, 2023
His conversation with anchor Chuck Todd hinged on how Republicans, particularly those in Florida led by DeSantis, are cracking down on lessons that politicize race or talk about sexual orientation in public schools.
This month, DeSantis scored a victory when the College Board released a revised curriculum for its new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies after Republicans raised concerns about the previous version serving as a front for “radical” extreme left-wing ideology. DeSantis raised particular concerns about the inclusion of queer theory, Black Lives Matter, and intersectionality. The College Board has revised the course’s framework but says it was not in response to Florida.
During their conversation, Todd played clips of Republicans including DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence raising concerns about indoctrination in schools and a loss of parental rights.
One Republican who has officially declared a 2024 campaign, former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, argued a bill signed last year into law by DeSantis that prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade did not go far enough.
“Basically what it said was, you shouldn’t have to talk about gender before third grade,” Haley said during a recent event in New Hampshire, per National Review. “I’m sorry, I don’t think that goes far enough. When I was in school you didn’t have sex ed until seventh grade.”
Hogan left office last month as a relatively popular governor in deep-blue Maryland, but he — along with Haley and Pence — has not gained much traction in 2024 presidential campaign polling compared to the likes of DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.
During his interview Sunday, Hogan conceded that “most people just don’t think we should be talking about things like sex to young kids, and the parents want to be more involved in the decisions about what their kids are being taught.”
But Hogan insisted voters have higher priorities than education.
“It’s an issue. It’s not the most important issue,” Hogan said. The former governor said he believes people are more concerned about the economy, inflation, and crime. Still, he said education is “one of the things we’ve got to talk about.”