On Wednesday, the Florida Board of Education “permanently” banned admissions from public universities. using taxpayer funds Toward a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The board's new rules prohibit the use of state and federal funds to support DEI “programs, activities, or policies of the University of Florida System.”
“As a result of the Board of Education’s decision, no taxpayer funds will be used to promote DEI on Florida’s 28 state university campuses,” the State Board of Education announced Wednesday. press release said.
The rule defined DEI efforts as “programs that classify individuals on the basis of race or gender for the purpose of discriminatory or preferential treatment.”
In addition to implementing new measures, the board also eliminated the “Elements of Sociology” course and replaced it with the “Comprehensive General Education Core Course in American History.” The course aims to teach “an accurate and factual account of this country's past, rather than subjecting the population to the radical woke ideology that has now become common in the courses it replaced.”
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. called on higher education to “return to its essential foundations of academic integrity and the pursuit of knowledge, rather than being corrupted by destructive ideology.”
“These actions today will ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to support DEI and radical indoctrination that fosters social division,” Diaz said.
all Tuesday CNN At a town hall, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, argued that the way DEI is “actually done” more accurately represents “discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination.”
“They say it's diversity, equity, and inclusion, but they're actually very ideological and trying to impose policies,” DeSantis said.
Last summer, DeSantis declared“As of July 1, DEI in Florida ends.” In May, the governor signed legislation barring state and federal funding for DEI initiatives in public education.
“We're eliminating DEI programs,” he said. “We treat people as individuals.”
Last year, the state's universities were required by the DeSantis administration to submit reports detailing all spending on DEI and critical race theory. The University of Florida was accused of significantly underreporting efforts to “conceal extremism on campus” and lying to the governor, Blaze News previously reported.
Ben Crump, a civil rights activist and attorney who criticized the board's decision, wrote: X Wednesday: “We continue down the wrong path of censorship in Florida!”
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