The Florida State Board of Education on Wednesday passed a rule to “permanently prohibit” public spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion and public universities.
The board announced its “strict regulations” on DEI to encompass programs, activities, and policies in the Florida College System, which “will ensure that taxpayer funds can no longer be used to promote DEI on Florida’s 28 state college campuses,” according to a press release.
The move is aimed at blocking funding for programs and other endeavors that “categorize individuals based on race or sex for the purpose of differential or preferential treatment.”
“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. “These actions today ensure that we will not spend taxpayers’ money supporting DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division in our society.”
The board also replaced a “Principles of Sociology” course in the state system with a general education offering on American history aimed at presenting “students with an accurate and factual account of the nation’s past, rather than exposing them to radical woke ideologies.”
The new rule comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill last year that defunded DEI programs at public universities. According to WPTV, the Sunshine State’s public institutions of higher education self-reported spending at least $34 million on DEI programs after DeSantis asked them for an audit.
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Equality Florida, a gay activist organization, condemned the move in a statement Wednesday, stating in part, “There’s no surprise today that the State Board of Education, a board that has been a rubber stamp for Governor Ron DeSantis’s agenda of censorship and surveillance, moved forward with another sweepingly broad rule that abolishes diversity and inclusion programs in the Florida College System.”
“This is a brazenly political attack on Florida’s colleges, and all minorities in Florida, and is one more way state agencies have been weaponized to support Governor DeSantis’s failing political ambitions,” the statement continued. “Shame on the State Board of Education for passing rules that weaken and threaten Florida’s colleges in service to one more manufactured culture war.”