Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty images
Florida’s State Board of Education “permanently” banned the use of taxpayer money at public colleges from funding DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives.
“Today, the State Board of Education implemented strict regulations to limit the use of public funds for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, activities, and policies in the Florida College System (FCS)” the press statement reads.
“The rule adopted by the Board defined, for the first time, DEI and affirmatively prohibits FCS institutions from using state or federal funds to administer programs that categorize individuals based on race or sex for the purpose of differential or preferential treatment. The Board’s decision will ensure that taxpayer funds can no longer be used to promote DEI on Florida’s 28 state college campuses” the statement says.
The board also announced that the course “Principles of Sociology” will be replaced with a “comprehensive general education core course in American History”.
The new course aims to “provide students with 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.”
“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 the statement. “These actions today ensure that we will not spend taxpayers’ money supporting DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division in our society.”
“Florida remains committed to providing our students with a world-class education rooted in the pursuit of truth, rather than biased indoctrination, which is why the state’s higher education system has been ranked #1 in the nation for seven consecutive years by the U.S. News & World Report” the statement concludes.
Last week, Florida Governor and then presidential candidate Ron DeSantis said during a CNN town hall that with how DEI is “actually practiced” it more accurately stands for “discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination.”
“They say it’s diversity, equity and inclusion, but it’s really very ideological, and they’re trying to impose an agenda,” DeSantis said. “I think the way it’s actually practiced, it stands for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination, and it’s wrong.”
DeSantis signed a law in May banning state and federal funding for DEI initiatives in public education in Florida. which took affect on July 1st 2023.
“We are eliminating the DEI programs,” DeSantis said at the time. “We are going to treat people as individuals.”
The Blaze reported in July that The University of Florida drastically underreported its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to “conceal the radicalism inside the campus” according to Christopher Rufo, a DeSantis education hire.
Rufo accused the University at the time of “lying through their teeth to the governor” and said that the University had over “1,000 separate DEI programs embedded in every facet of the university’s programs and administration”.
“The University of Florida, the state’s flagship university, listed 43 staff positions connected to DEI and reported expenditures totaling $5.3 million on “diversity-related programs and expenses,” with the state providing close to $3.4 million of that, the College Fix reported.
According to documents obtained by Rufo, the school had 1,018 initiatives, which included projects such as the “legacies of slavery and oppression,” “decolonizing the curriculum,” and “gender pronouns initiative.”
“What we see over and over in America’s institutions is that the leaders have been captured by radical left wing DEI ideology,” Rufo stated. “And then when they’re discovered, they make every attempt to hide, obfuscate and conceal the true nature of what’s happening inside their institutions.”