MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Maxeme “Max” Tuchman is challenging Mary Blanco, the incumbent, in November to serve as the Miami-Dade School Board member who represents District 7.
In January, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Blanco, a psychologist who agreed with the 2022 Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law because it limits what teachers can say about gender and sexuality.
Blanco has experience as a guidance counselor at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, a Catholic all-girls high school managed by the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Miami-Dade County. She also has experience with Broward County Public Schools.
“I have increased pipelines. I have more counselors in our schools and recently there has been a pilot of vaping detectors in our schools that has gone extremely well,” Blanco said.
Blanco also supports the school choice programs pushed by DeSantis and she was among the five school board members who voted against recognizing LGBTQ History Month this year.
“We are leaving out extreme social, ideologies political things, and we are just keeping students educated on the main things while avoiding indoctrination,” Blanco said.
Tuchman, a former teacher turned education entrepreneur, disagreed with Blanco’s position and said the recognition of LGBTQ History Month did not include a curriculum.
“It’s an acknowledgment of a people that exist,” Tuchman said.
Tuchman also said her skills and experience make her a better fit to make decisions at the school board level.
“When I look at the School Board, it’s a policy role and it’s a business role,” Tuchman said. “I mean it’s a $7 billion budget that our school board members are in charge of.”
Tuchman said she is more concerned about preparing M-DCPS students to have the skills to work with artificial intelligence.
“There is no way to prompt AI without understanding the English language so we have got to get back to basics,” Tuchman said.
Tuchman is the former local head of Teach For America, a non-profit organization that recruits outstanding recent college graduates to teach students in urban and rural schools. She worries that the program for school vouchers used for private schools lacks transparency.
“We have a high standard. We should do the same for the charters and private schools where the $2.7 billion tax dollars are going,” Tuchman said.