On Monday, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida put his signature to legislation known as SB 266, marking a significant shift in how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are funded in the state’s public universities.
This move reinforces his ongoing commitment to curbing what he characterizes as “woke” influences on education.
Under this new legislation, state funding can no longer be allocated towards DEI programs within public universities. Additionally, the bill affords university presidents greater control over hiring decisions.
DeSantis formalized this groundbreaking law at the New College of Florida, a campus that has undergone significant changes under his administration this year.
This latest move falls in line with a broader national push for education reform, a movement which gained traction following Virginia’s 2021 gubernatorial election.
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Parents in Virginia had expressed growing dissatisfaction over the perceived lack of transparency in the state’s schools and their emphasis on critical race theory.
In his pursuit of education reform, DeSantis has chosen to use the New College of Florida as a benchmark for changes across the state’s public universities.
The vision is to align the college more closely with the model of Michigan’s Hillsdale College, a private liberal arts institution, as shared by Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz in January.
Diaz had stated, “Our hope is that New College of Florida will become Florida’s classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South.” This aspiration for change has been championed by DeSantis since the beginning of the year.
In a speech on Monday, DeSantis emphasized the impact of his alterations to the New College. He expressed that the initiative to reduce the emphasis on DEI and critical race theory (CRT) at the institution was garnering interest from faculty nationwide.
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DeSantis observed, “There’s a lot of interest in faculty around the country, and not conservative faculty, [but] across the board, because I think there’s a recognition that this whole framework has been very intellectually oppressive.”
He went on to highlight the adverse effects of this oppression on intellectual freedom, stating, “People feel like they’re walking on eggshells…. That’s not a healthy environment. They don’t believe that they have the freedom to speak their minds on a lot of these university campuses.”
DeSantis didn’t stop at the funding ban. In his mission to transform the state’s educational landscape, he also enacted a law prohibiting public universities from mandating “diversity statements” from students and faculty as a condition for admission or employment.
These statements are typically used to show how a candidate’s experiences could contribute to a diverse and inclusive campus environment.
This new approach in Florida could be a bellwether for education reform across the nation, as debates about DEI and CRT continue to shape the discourse around the future of education in America.