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In the latest move from Florida conservatives in their war on public education, the state has barred public colleges from using state and federal funds for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, as part of an anti-DEI bill that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law last May.
The State Board of Education announced the new restrictions in a statement Wednesday, saying it will apply to 28 state schools within the Florida College System, some of which, as NBC News reported, "serve sizable populations of Black and Latino students."
The inordinately broad ban encompasses “any program, campus activity, or policy that classifies individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation and promotes differential or preferential treatment of individuals on the basis of such classification.”
The board also removed a “Principles of Sociology” course requirement, replacing it with a core course in American history to “provide students with an accurate and factual account of the nation’s past, rather than exposing them to radical woke ideologies,” according to the statement. (Florida College System Chancellor Kathy Hebda told the Tampa Bay Times that students can still elect to take sociology courses.)
Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. suggested that higher education had been “corrupted by destructive ideologies.”
"These actions today ensure that we will not spend taxpayers’ money supporting DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division in our society," he said in a statement.
DeSantis' war on "wokeness" — a catch-all term encompassing a range of grievances attributed to a far-left bogeyman — has been the centerpiece of his platform as governor of Florida and as a flailing GOP presidential candidate.
The policy has had a particularly profound impact on public education in Florida, resulting in bans on books (including dictionaries and encyclopedias, which are currently "under review"), mandating that curriculums teach that enslaved people "benefited" from slavery, and causing a notable exodus of educators from the profession.