![\"Henry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MIA_TFL-L-Broward-college-hires-05-100323.JPG\" "\\"Henry")
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Henry Mack is interviewed for the Broward College interim President position at the Fort Lauderdale campus on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Mack is an education lobbyist, a former Broward College administrator, a former state education chancellor and a recent finalist for the presidency at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. (Amy Beth Bennett \/ South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n
Amy Beth Bennett<\/p>\n
South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/p>\n
TALLAHASSEE<\/p>\n
The Florida Board of Education unanimously approved Henry Mack as the state\u2019s new education commissioner on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Mack, a former senior chancellor at the Department of Education and most recently the U.S. assistant secretary of labor, was recommended for the position by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an honor beyond words to be entrusted with stewarding Florida schools at this pivotal moment,\u201d Mack told the Board.<\/p>\n
Mack replaces Anastasios Kamoutsas, who recently became president of Polk State College, and interim commissioner Paul Burns, a senior chancellor at DOE. The position pays approximately $330,000 a year.<\/p>\n
Burns said it was an honor to be the interim president for the three weeks he served and looked forward to working with Mack.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a parent himself, I know that he believes in parental rights and in school choice, and so board members I just wanted to share that today, you will be making an excellent choice for Florida\u2019s students, for all of Florida\u2019s educators and for Florida families by choosing Dr. Mack to be our next commissioner of education,\u201d Burns said.<\/p>\n
Mack worked for DOE from 2019-2023, led the state\u2019s career and technical education initiatives and heavily supported DeSantis\u2019 parental rights policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am confident Dr. Mack will build on Florida\u2019s record of success in education,\u201d DeSantis said in a statement. \u201cHe shares our commitment to parental rights, school choice, eliminating radical ideologies from the classroom, and preparing every student for success in the workforce and in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florida College System presidents, including those from Miami Dade College, St. Petersburg College and Pasco-Hernando State College, spoke in favor of Mack as the new commissioner, as well as the head of the Florida Chamber of Commerce and career and technical education professionals throughout the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Mack is a leader, I also believe he\u2019s anointed. You\u2019ve heard several people talk about his skill set, but I\u2019ll close with he is also chosen for such a time as this,\u201d said Mel Ponder, president of Northwest Florida State College.<\/p>\n
During his time with DOE, Mack was critical of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a proponent of \u201cclassical\u201d education, a teaching approach backed by conservatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlorida is restoring the classical aims of public education \u2014 starting by confining woke ideology to \u2018the dustbin of history,\u2019\u201d he posted on social media in 2023.<\/p>\n
Mack has a bachelor\u2019s and a master\u2019s degree from the Catholic University of America and a doctorate in education from the University of Miami.<\/p>\n
He has taught courses in religion and philosophy at the University of Miami and Florida International University.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Mack is a respected academic. He is very forward thinking, and I believe he will support our students and our parents,\u201d said Vice Chairwoman MaryLynn Magar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Henry Mack is interviewed for the Broward College interim President position at the Fort Lauderdale campus on Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-349533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}