The first significant shoe in the irrevocable law of unintended consequences dropped Friday afternoon when the Department of Education overseen by Gov. Ron DeSantis (the GOP presidential hopeful) suspended a handful of high-end private schools from the state’s taxpayer-supported scholarship program.

Signed into law in May by DeSantis, the school-choice legislation offers $8,000 annually to students seeking alternatives to traditional public schools. About that. Lawmakers included a clause prohibiting participation by schools affiliated with any “foreign country of concern.”

The targeted schools — two Sagemont Preparatory Academy locations in Weston, west of Fort Lauderdale; and two Park Maitland School campuses in Orange County (home to Walt Disney World) — are a little more than “affiliated” with a “foreign country of concern.” They are, in fact, subsidiaries of Primavera Holdings Limited, a massive private equity fund headquartered in Hong Kong with branches in, among other places, Singapore and Beijing.

Despite being separated by assorted layers of corporate governance, this is not an altogether benign relationship. The Financial Times (paywall) identifies Primavera Chairman Fred Hu as a member of the Chinese Communist Party — and not merely a matter of political expedience: Hu regularly contributes op-eds to the South China Morning Post praising communism and the CCP.

Thus spoke Florida’s governor: 

“The Chinese Communist Party is not welcome in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “We will not put up with any attempt to influence students with a communist ideology or allow Floridians’ tax dollars to go to schools that are connected to our foreign adversaries.”

DeSantis’ pronouncement came at the conclusion of an investigation by the state DOE, which found “Lower and Upper Sagemont Preparatory Schools in Weston, Parke House Academy in Winter Park, and Park Maitland School in Winter Park have direct ties to the CCP and their connections constitute an imminent threat to the health, safety, and welfare of these school’s students and the public.”

So, of course, the usual pundits sprang into action, claiming — or at least speculating — that DeSantis was up to what they regard as his customary political tricks. Would DeSantis have pulled this trigger, wonders the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, absent his “struggling” presidential campaign and Wednesday’s second GOP debate?

Given DeSantis’ political situation, and his track record as governor, people shouldn’t accept his allegations against the schools at face value, said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University. …

“We can’t have a discussion as though this was something real. What we also have to understand is that DeSantis is in the middle of a presidential campaign. It’s a presidential campaign that is obviously going very badly. It is a presidential campaign that has faded from front-runner status to fighting a four-way battle for second place,” [Jarvis said. “When you’re in this situation, you have to make big moves that will grab headlines, that will energize your campaign, that will get donors to come back to you.”

Is Jarvis right? Probably. It’s certainly not not about politics. To have done nothing after the DOE’s investigation would have left DeSantis open to damaging charges that he was allowing Florida tax dollars to flow to the CCP.

But a thing can be good politics and, simultaneously, good governance. Both even can be fueled by the same resolve. That’s certainly the case here: China is practicing aggressive hegemony around the world, recreating the topography of the South China Sea with militarized artificial islands, and is a moment-by-moment threat to Taiwan, a close U.S. ally.

In this atmosphere of threat and deceit, America’s elected executives cannot allow their administrations to be in any way complicit. State lawmakers expressed their preferences plainly; DeSantis acted well within the letter and spirit of the law.

Sagemont Academy, of course, was not amused.

Mellesia Nelson, the head of school at Sagemont Preparatory School, which has a lower school located at 1570 Sagemont Way and an upper school located at 2585 Glades Circle — both in Weston — said in an emailed statement Monday that the school is “seeking more information regarding the basis for this decision” and “working directly with our families to ensure they can remain enrolled” at Sagemont.

“Our schools are locally run, abide by local, state and federal laws, and do not have ties to any government or political party, either foreign or domestic,” she wrote. “Our curriculum is accredited, standards-based and academically rigorous.”

That is all well and good. We salute the local Sagemont Prep team for its demonstrated commitment to exceptional academic standards and wish them well in their continued pursuit of educational excellence.

But there’s no getting around where the strings of the schools ultimately lead.

The roughly 230 students who have enjoyed taxpayer-subsidized tuition at the affected schools have the option of working with state-approved nonprofits to find acceptable alternatives.

Meanwhile, Floridians will have the pleasure of knowing their well-intended tax dollars are not trickling across the Pacific Ocean to a regime noted for ruthless global misbehavior.

In honor of smart politics and responsible governance, maybe the greater electorate could give DeSantis a little credit. The only thing worse than stumbling into unintended consequences is failing to fix them.