Career
By the time Krop"s service to the School Board ended, it oversaw over 360,000 students and a $4.3 billion annual budget. He initially took up mundane, relatively non-controversial issues, seeking increased homework loads for a student population he believed to be underchallenged, and pushing for measures to reduce a rising trend of violence in schools. Krop was elected to chair the School Board four times, covering several lengthy periods during his tenure.
This position allowed him to advocate strongly for the needs of minority students, particularly among newly arriving immigrant populations.
When the school system was overwhelmed by the immigration of Nicaraguan refugees in 1988-1989, Krop led efforts to address the crisis, and called upon the federal government to provide aid. He also sought to bring greater public exposure to the School Board, initiating "gavel to gavel" television coverage of School Board meetings
In 1998, Doctor Krop High School was named for him. Former board members Janet McAliley and Betsy Kaplan accused Krop of lobbying to have the school named for him on separate occasions, a charge which Krop denied.
Some in the community still strongly resent the name.
Krop was a stalwart Democrat throughout his service, but the School Board gradually shifted to a more conservative composition. When Krop was first elected, the Board had been entirely composed of Democrats for twenty years. By the end of his tenure, the Board had become a majority-Republican body, but Krop"s colleagues continued to support his leadership.
At the time of Krop"s retirement from public office, he was the longest-serving elected official in Miami-Dade County.
