The fight for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) continues in the Sunshine State.
Florida’s Board of Education passed a new rule Jan. 17 banning the state’s 28 public colleges and universities from using state and federal funds for DEI programs, activities, and policies.
“Higher education must return to its essential foundations of academic integrity and the pursuit
of knowledge instead of being corrupted by destructive ideologies,” Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. said in a statement. “These actions today ensure that we will not spend taxpayers’ money supporting DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division in our society.”The rule affects campuses, including Seminole State College of Florida, Valencia College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, and more, with a significant number of Black and Latino students.
Florida has been spiraling in changes to their education system since 2023. In May 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation restricting how race and gender can be taught in college classrooms while emphasizing the study of Western civilization. DeSantis redefined DEI as standing for “discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination” and has no place in public institutions.
In 2023, DeSantis signed HB 999, which allows the BOE to instruct universities to remove programs with subjects surrounding critical race theory and gender studies. Spending on programs and activities with labeled curriculum would also be prohibited.
The new rule includes a replacement for a course titled “Principles of Sociology” with an American history course so students will have “an accurate and factual account of the nation’s past, rather than exposing them to radical woke ideologies, which had become commonplace in the now replaced course.”