On Tuesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced that his state would be ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) funding for public universities, and increase scrutiny toward underperforming professors.
DeSantis said that his state is “going to eliminate all DEI and CRT bureaucracies in the state of Florida, no funding and that will wither on the vine. And I think that that’s very important because it really serves as an ideological filter, a political filter… We probably are the first state that’s actually leading by example, but I can tell you those bureaucracies are not representative of what the people of this state and the taxpayers of this state want.”
DeSantis added that “DEI bureaucracies” are “hostile to academic freedom” and “constitute a drain on resources.” Notably, according to an analysis from the Heritage Foundation, universities hire an average of three diversity staffers for every 100 tenured faculty.
The move will be part of proposed legislation for 2023 that aims to “further elevate civil discourse and intellectual freedom in higher education, further pushing back against the tactics of liberal elites who suppress free thought in the name of identity politics and indoctrination,” a press release from DeSantis’ office said.
“[The] legislation will ensure Florida’s public universities and colleges are grounded in the history and philosophy of Western Civilization; prohibit DEI, CRT and other discriminatory programs and barriers to learning; and course correct universities’ missions to align education for citizenship of the constitutional republic and Florida’s existing and emerging workforce needs,” the press release added.
DeSantis said, “In Florida, we will build off of our higher education reforms by aligning core curriculum to the values of liberty and the Western tradition, eliminating politicized bureaucracies like DEI, increasing the amount of research dollars for programs that will feed key industries with talented Florida students, and empowering presidents and boards of trustees to recruit and hire new faculty, including by dedicating record resources for faculty salaries.”
