ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: Sasse, Corcoran neck and neck in race to be Florida's worst college president (Nate Monroe column, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union)

My mother told me when I was a little boy, "Republicans never steal anything small."  From Jacksonville Florida Times-Union 

Sasse, Corcoran neck and neck in race to be Florida's worst college president | Commentary

Nate Monroe

Jacksonville Florida Times-Union

Richard Corcoran wasn't about to let that runza monger hog the spotlight. No sir, if there's going to be a disgraced university president in the news, by god it's going to be Richard Michael Corcoran of New College of Florida, the once-respected liberal arts school turned raggedy right-wing academy for Clarence Thomas scholars.

Ben Sasse, the University of Florida's former president, was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, making him Florida's main character for the first half of the week. Not to be outdone, Corcoran's latest sin is having his underlings toss a truckload of books into the garbage, according to a report Thursday from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Steven Walker, combining the oafish meanness of Matilda's parents with the imagery of dystopian fiction. In a response befitting this disinformation age, Corcoran's flaks called the account "false" — a bold statement in light of the video and photo evidence available — before then, with no hint of irony, confirming the account: "The images seen online of a dumpster of library materials is related to the standard weeding process."

Some hapless Corcoran toady pointed to a state law to explain why the books couldn't be donated or made available to students, as they had in the past, but that law merely confirms the clear fact that New College could have done exactly that. This was no accident: The books bound for the landfill included titles from the college's former Gender and Diversity Center — a collection of words that, in the Free State of Florida, generally invite state censorship. Heaven forbid college kids read "Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate," a book a curious New College student would have to dumpster dive to find now.

Corcoran is that most fitting a Floridian for the DeSantis era: a committed, strident ideologue, except in his own affairs. During his tenure in the state House, for example, he was known as a rude and miserly fiscal hawk, possessed with the belief college administrators were overpaid and spending lavishly. He seemed to believe that until he began trawling for a sinecure from his political superior, Gov. Ron DeSantis, in the world of public education. That first took the form of an appointment as Florida's Education Commissioner, a mostly undistinguished term save for a bid-rigging scandal centered on the management of a small Florida school district.

As commissioner, he got the public attention he so often seems to crave, but his true apparent goal was becoming one of those overpaid college administrators himself. He gunned for a chance to run Florida State University — a crusade during which he flew a bit close to the sun — but ultimately landed a job running New College of Florida. He was installed by a remade board of trustees, a group of fanatics selected by DeSantis with the intention of making an example out of the small liberal-arts school.

Corcoran, an opponent of public education (save for his ability to make a buck off it), quickly set about turning New College into the Hillsdale of the South, a conservative higher-education bulwark. Vital to this work was securing for himself a plum compensation package worth about $1.1 million, a staggering sum that is among the highest in Florida despite New College being the state's smallest public college.

It's been one controversy after the next with Corcoran, but that so often seems to be the point.

Corcoran and Sasse's hirings at their respective schools seemed to usher in a sea change in how higher education is run in Florida: experienced administrators were out, politicians were in. DeSantis carefully chose the appointees who run Florida's college system, centralizing power over this diversified set of schools and allowing him to exert his will on issues like tenure and diversity programs. Every high-level vacancy in a Florida college prompts a fevered and terrified concern: which low-life politician is DeSantis going to stick them with next?

But Sasse and Corcoran have generated so much heat — Sasse in particular has come under criticism this week from no less than U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis — it's tempting to hope this experience has even soured DeSantis on this particular project. The problem with useful idiots is that they happen to be ... well, you know.

Nate Monroe is a Florida columnist for the USA Today Network. Follow him on Twitter @NateMonroeTU. Email him at nmonroe@gannett.com.