(Newsworthy.news) – Under the conservative leadership of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, public universities in Florida are no longer permitted to use publicly funding for controversial DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives.
The regulations were recently adopted by the state’s Board of Education and they prohibit publicly funded programs and policies in college systems. DEI is defined as activities or policies that divide individuals into groups based on gender, race or other identifying characteristics.
The motivation behind such practices is to address perceived “accessibility” issues and so-called “inequities” through adjusting hiring policies and pay differences between genders. DEI professionals have described the liberal practice as being grounded in a movement of lobbying for anti-discrimination laws, predating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Civil Rights Act of the 1960s.
Under the new Board of Education rules, the Florida College System is barred from using both federal and state funds for programs that are included in the state DEI definition, including those in and out of the classroom.
DeSantis and his administration have cracked down on DEI initiatives while in office, stirring up a major push back against the onslaught of left-wing ideologies seeping into American education. In addition to his efforts to remove DEI policies from Florida colleges and universities, DeSantis has instituted bans and restrictions on critical race theory and books promoting gender ideology to children in kindergarten through high school.
The Board’s decision follows a legislative effort to pass the Stop WOKE (Wrong to Our Kids and Employees) Act, backed by the DeSantis administration. The bill, designed to prohibit school lessons which promote the concept that there is systemic racism imbedded in American institutions, was blocked in August 2022.
In that ruling, the judge said that its intentions violated protected First Amendment rights to free speech in education and that the bill language and restrictions were too vague to enforce. The legislative effort will be considered again in a bench trial scheduled for October 2024.
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