The education wars continue in Florida.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday sweeping reforms in higher education for the state. His proposed plan, made at a press conference at New College, builds on the move he made at that school, the state’s liberal arts institution, in changing the composition of its Board of Trustees. These new proposals would require Florida’s public universities to teach courses on Western civilization, limit the teaching of certain left-wing programs, and allow for-cause review of tenured faculty.

In his remarks , DeSantis framed his education reforms within the national debate regarding the purpose of higher education. DeSantis articulated with clarity the two competing camps. One side, pushed by the cultural and political Left, sees education as a means “to impose ideological conformity” for the purpose of provoking “political activism.” The Left indoctrinates through curriculum like critical race theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) statements for faculty and staff.

Through CRT and similar curriculum, the Left weaponizes learning. This is intentional, because the purpose is to generate progressive adherents. Thus, alternative or nuanced discussions of historical and political matters cannot be allowed. Doing so would risk not achieving the outcome of making culturally and politically progressive social warriors.

To call this education strains the meaning of the term when indoctrination more accurately describes the Left’s goals.

The DEI statements and comparable methods police uniformity of thought on the other side of the education line — those who teach. This rigid conformity to current, Left-leaning ideology makes sure that nothing contradicts the curriculum’s indoctrinating method to achieve its progressive partisan ends. These purity tests not only deepen the damage done in the classroom but extend it to the scholarship and research that higher education also exists to contribute.

In contrast, DeSantis posited another, better vision of higher education. This view posited two means, an end, and a standard for proper higher education. The first means is “academic freedom.” Contrary to the media’s caricatures, DeSantis has not pursued a competing indoctrination that takes the same educational approach as the Left but replaces its ideology with a right-wing one. Instead, he seeks to open up higher education to free inquiry that strives to be historically accurate and to not “suppress or distort historical events.” This freedom will make scholarship better, not worse. For knowledge must have some space to question, to dig, in order to better understand.

The second related means involves trying “to give the students the foundation to think for themselves.” Higher education shouldn’t seek culture warriors parroting talking points. Instead, the capacity to think for oneself encourages debate and free thought. This does more than make for better classrooms. It is essential to any free society. “We, the People” govern in this country. Our votes (at least should) articulate how we as a country understand justice and how we wish to pursue it. But if we don’t know how to think for ourselves, someone else will do the thinking, and thus acting, for us. That isn’t real republican self-government. And how we educate communicates whether we truly are committed to these principles or not.

DeSantis stated that these means should focus on an end: “the pursuit of truth.” Education should not be conflated with indoctrination, but neither should it assume a relativism that denies that truth exists and that it can be known. We should exercise our freedom, our independent thinking, to gain clarity in what is true (as well as good and beautiful). We must learn of our country’s great principles and noble achievements as well as study our failings and need for reform. Self-governed citizens should know truth so they can pursue it — all points DeSantis’s plan would enhance, not negate.

Finally, DeSantis mentioned higher education’s standard, that it should “promote academic excellence.” We exercise intellectual freedom, we cultivate independent thinking, all in the pursuit of truth. But one can do so well or poorly. To do so rightly is to do so excellently. We should demand no less of our schools.

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DeSantis is fighting these education wars because they are essential to our future as a country. It is no less than a battle for truth and liberty — to learn the former to better exercise the latter. He, and we, should fight to win.

Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.