Officials at the Florida State Board of Education issued a new rule last week heavily regulating the use of public funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, marking the latest move from the state government to remove leftist ideology from public education.
The state agency revealed that the rule will affirmatively prohibit the use of “state or federal funds to administer programs that categorize individuals based on race or sex for the purpose of differential or preferential treatment.” The new standard will impact the use of taxpayer funds at the twenty-eight schools in the Florida College System.
“Higher education must return to its essential foundations of academic integrity and the pursuit of knowledge instead of being corrupted by destructive ideologies,” Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said in a statement. “These actions today ensure that we will not spend taxpayers’ money supporting DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division.”
The Florida State Board of Education also replaced the course “Principles of Sociology” with a “general education core course in American History,” an attempt 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.”
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has introduced crackdowns on leftist ideology at schools receiving taxpayer funds in recent years, asserting that diversity initiatives foment unnecessary division along demographic lines. DeSantis endorsed multiple bills last year to forbid requirements that students and faculty take “political loyalty tests,” as well as additional measures to prohibit public institutions from spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“Florida has ranked number one in higher education for seven years in a row, and by signing this legislation we are ensuring that Florida’s institutions encourage diversity of thought, civil discourse, and the pursuit of truth for generations to come,” DeSantis said in a statement.
