Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Mondaysigned a billthat will eliminate funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from public universities and prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in general education courses.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (also known as DEI) and critical race theory (or CRT) courses have become a hot button topic, particularly among conservatives who argue that the classes will teach white students that they are inferior to their minority peers. Progressives, however, say that these classes help foster a more inclusive and welcoming environment.
DeSantis has argued against them, claiming that “woke” ideology isracially divisive and discriminatory. CRT, he has said, is “state-sanctioned racism that … [teaches] kids to hate our country or to hate each other.”
“DEI is better viewed as standing for ‘discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,’ and that has no place in our public institutions,” DeSantis said in signing the bill Monday, according to Florida’s Voice News.
SB 266mandates that any Florida College System institution “may not expend any state or federal funds to promote, support, or maintain any programs or campus activities that … advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism.”
AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
The bill also forbids Florida’s public colleges from offering general education courses that “distort significant historical events,” or are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.”
In his press conference, DeSantis said, “the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida, we are eliminating the DEI programs. We are going to treat people as individuals, we’re not going to treat people as members of groups. And it’s also wrong how this has been implemented.”
Mandating what and how children learn has proved a focus of DeSantis during his tenure as governor.
In January, DeSantis' administration rejected a new Advanced Placement course on African American history, saying in a letter that the course “lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law.”
“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” read the letter, which was sent to the College Board from the Florida Department of Education Office of Articulation.
CBS News reported at the time that the letterdoes not specifywhat, exactly is inaccurate about the course, which is now in a pilot phase in 60 high schools around the country.
According to TIME, the coursecovered more than 400 years of African American historyand is the College Board’s first new offering since 2014.
Speaking to reporters in a press briefing in January, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the decision to block the course “incomprehensible,” saying: “These types of actions aren’t new, especially from what we’re seeing from Florida, sadly.”
In his January inauguration speech, DeSantis slammed what he called “philosophical lunacy” in schools, saying: “We must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideologies.”
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source: people.com
