U.S. News
Florida Republicans seek to restrict what’s taught in higher education institutions
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!
- Florida GOP-sponsored education bill seeks to shut down diversity, inclusion, and equity programs in state colleges and universities.
- Bill, if passed, would ban colleges from offering majors or minors in Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality.
- Florida Republicans have been actively trying to restrict what’s taught in higher education institutions.
A new bill introduced by Florida Republican Representative Alex Andrade seeks to shut down diversity, inclusion, and equity programs in state colleges and universities. HB 999 prohibits state colleges from funding or supporting any “programs or campus activities” that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion or Critical Race Theory. The bill would also require state colleges to remove majors or minors related to Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality. It would also ban the presentation of American history that contradicts the “creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence” and any coursework that features “identity politics, such as Critical Race Theory.”
The bill features “breathtaking control of viewpoint and content throughout all academic activity in the entire Florida system,” according to Julian Davis Mortenson, a professor of law at the University of Michigan who specializes in constitutional and international law. Mortenson says that the bill prohibits colleges from spending “any money to fund pedagogy, programming, or activities” related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and changes who is allowed to hire university faculty and complete post-tenure reviews. The bill is part of a broader effort from Florida Republicans to restrict what’s taught in higher education. Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced a budget that would block state universities from using funding to support diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The bill also comes after a controversy between DeSantis and the College Board over an AP African American Studies course. DeSantis rejected the course, saying it imposed “a political agenda.” DeSantis then announced plans to “ensure Florida’s public universities and colleges are grounded in the history and philosophy of Western Civilization,” which included prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as so-called “Critical Race Theory.” Much of DeSantis’ outline, such as points forbidding colleges from supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion activities and programs, are reflected in HB 999.
As of now, it is uncertain whether the bill will pass or not. DeSantis’ office said that the governor would “decide on the merits of the bill in final form if and when it passes.” If passed, the bill would have far-reaching implications for academic freedom in Florida’s colleges and universities.
Source: msn.com
Don
February 25, 2023 at 8:10 am
Looks like we have at least one adult state left in the south.
Jeffrey
February 27, 2023 at 12:31 pm
Yes!!!
Jackson Spurlock
February 26, 2023 at 7:02 am
Sounds like Governor DeSantis want complete freedom to teach students American history in class and not Critical Race Theory garbage…
Jeffrey
February 27, 2023 at 12:32 pm
Yes, hurray!!!
Michael D. Cooper
February 26, 2023 at 8:10 am
I hope this gets copied across the nation.
Steve
February 27, 2023 at 6:47 am
Education has always been thousands of times more valuable than indoctrination.
Leo virgil Rowland
February 27, 2023 at 7:05 am
Need to move to Florida if you have school age children.
Joe Buckstrap
February 27, 2023 at 7:10 am
There’s no such thing as “Critical Race Theory” there is only history. The US has a dark history, just as every other country does – especially if it was a European colony in its nascent state. Repugnants. like their fascist forebears, are snowflakes who cannot adjust to reality so they seek to burn books and suppress inconvenient truths. People like the Swamp State Dictator are dangerous because they are obsessed with white supremacy and global domination. As a JAG lah’er he concealed and protected the torture program at Guantanamo, which inflicted gross injury and death on innocent people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is not a man of justice, but a creature of political expediency. As usual, the Repugnants flaunt hate as its calling card. Like all fascist movements Repugnants make their living demonizing the most vulnerable in society. They believe in division, segregation and discrimination – that’s what they think is Great.
Sapienne
February 27, 2023 at 7:34 am
If there is no Critical Race Theory, why did the school system agree that they would “take it out” of the curriculum? I am a white-as-snow American, of advanced age, who has lived in both military and civilian societies all over the nation and all over the globe, since my father and my husband were both military members. I have NEVER, in my whole life, heard any white person, adult or child, express hatred or disdain for other skin colors or nationalities. I know that it exists, but in my experience, it must be very rare, or in very selective locations, since in farm, city, or military-base living, I have never come across it. To teach children they must fear others will mistreat them is to poison their minds against those others, and to induce self-fulfilling behavior where suspicion and fear creates the animosity expected. It is correct to take that kind of implication out of school texts and to teach children, as Dr. King advised, to value the “content of character”.
James Herman
February 27, 2023 at 8:14 am
If your comments weren’t so ignorant, I would be laughing right now…
Michael Flanagan
February 27, 2023 at 11:18 am
Well Well Well Another Commie that teaching HATE is history. If it’s about SLAVERY then the Federal Government is the greatest SLAVE MASTER of all time to this day. WHY? Welfare keeps People (Especially Black People) in poverty by providing just enough to survive and Killing any willingness to provide for them selves.
WHY work if Government givs it fer’s frees Bro.
Sapienne
February 27, 2023 at 7:14 am
It sounds to me like DeSantis wants teachers and textbooks to teach fact-based history and not racio-political theory as to the origins of our country and the differing stages of relations between ethnicities as it has developed. It sounds to me like he wants children to know of the mistakes that were made so that they do not repeat them, but not to hate their country, which not only is the best nation in the word, but is continually improving upon its past. It sounds like he does not want the children to learn to hate each other because of the color of their skins or the actions of their long-ago ancestors. AMEN.
John J
February 27, 2023 at 7:33 am
Yes, we need to re take control of our country and stop allowing every Tom, Dick and Leroy to decide our educational needs
dcwalker
February 27, 2023 at 8:03 am
I’m 77, what a waste of college tuition….When I was a child we were taught to respect everyone, to treat others as you would want to be treated, voila, $$$ for college saved to learn science, math, medical, legal and other classes to further education and a career…..At 19 I obtained my first passport to visit a family friend that moved to Paris. I came home and took a job and traveled the world until I was 25, came home and went to college. The world is a big place, many different cultures, a fascinating planet and yet what we get today is marxist theory, CRT and control. sad
Colorado Cowboy
February 27, 2023 at 8:38 am
Ever since I heard about Critical Race Theory, and learned its tenets, I have been wracking my brain to recall where I had heard this before. The idea that Black People were incapable of getting ahead on their own without help from “white folks” that police should not go into minority neighborhoods, or the idea that different ethnic groups could not co-exist in harmony and therefore should be segregated, sounded very familiar.
Then it dawned on me. These were the very ideas expounded by Arkansas Governor Orvil Faubus, Alabama Governor George Wallace, and Georgia governor Lester Maddox back in the a950s and 60s.. But in those days, it was not Critical Race Theory – it was Cracker Race Theory, and most of the US rejected it. And still do!
Still not sure how Cracker Race Theory got to be part of the lame-brain left’s dogma, but now that we know what CRT really is maybe it will die a quick (and painful) death.
Tom
February 27, 2023 at 8:49 am
No need to ban them, just make them electives and not required for any degree and that the ‘professor’s’ salary be minimum wage. The BS courses will die due to non-attendance.
DrBillLemoine
February 27, 2023 at 10:19 am
Where are the forces for academic freedom, a long tradition of content freedom enjoyed by professors in colleges and universities? Where are the free speech rights groups so insistent on their Bill of Rights freedom to say and publish nearly any lie, but want to limit professors, a group that suffers much persecution and denial by MAGA supporters? Where are the ACLU, Common Cause and SPLC who fight for freedom and tolerance under our Constitution? Where are the U. S. District attorneys and Attorneys General who guard our freedoms? Someone should take these bozos to court fast.
B. Good.
February 27, 2023 at 11:56 am
* Professors suffering persecution and denial?? Nonsense. They are hired to teach what the college asks them to teach. They are given great leeway w.r.t. what they say in class. However, the state should be able to regulate, at a high level the studies and courses that are available since the schools funded by state taxes.
* …demonizing the most vulnerable in society?? Nonsense. The FLA gov and those who like him like him because he wants all individuals (constituents) treated per the country’s founding. That is equally … w.r.t. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
* They believe in division, segregation and discrimination ?? Nonsense. It is the left who have espoused identity politics (division based on race, creed, or color) for decades , not the right. The great majority of Americans are not pushing for segregation nor for discimination. But in the past, it is the left who pushed for segregation and discrimination. Look at the congressional voting for the Civil Rights bill.
It is falsehoods such as those stated above that are premises that gave rise to the anti-American concepts imbedded in CRT and DEI.
Jeffrey
February 27, 2023 at 12:41 pm
DeSantis is affirming our commitment as a society to freedom as understood from the beginning up through the Civil Rights Act. De jute and de facto segregation are wrong. However a black mom I’m friends with said her son preferred to go to a high school where most students were black (he was not forced to go there) because he told her he wanted to be with “his people.” Denouncing whites yet again under the ruse of DEI or CRT is destructive for the USA as well as for people of color.
Jeffrey
February 27, 2023 at 12:42 pm
**dejure** not **dejute**
American
February 27, 2023 at 12:52 pm
DeSantis is a voice of reason and a great American! There are many more subjects that should be banned but this is a very good start. Ow let’s roll this out across the entire country.
CPO Bill
February 27, 2023 at 4:27 pm
Get rid of that liberal woke indoctrinating Schiff!
Sean Richman
February 27, 2023 at 9:18 pm
Do it.Lets make AMERICA the way it was when it really was AMERICA.Item number one.kick the liberal,socialist,marxist democ rats into a different dimension,an Area on a island,somewhere,anywhere but far away.