Florida’s state Governor, Ron DeSantis, is vocally against DEI and everything it stands for. On multiple occasions, he has spoken about how he does not approve of DEI and ‘woke’ sex education, including the LGBTQ+ movement.
Therefore, he banned the teaching of gay topics in Florida schools. Most recently, Florida’s State Board of Education approved a new set of rules that do not support DEI. These rules will prohibit the Florida College System from using taxpayer funds to “promote DEI.”
The regulations will limit the use of public funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, activities, and policies. They will also remove a sociology class from a list of required courses and replace it with an American history course at Florida’s 28 state colleges.
The new rules affect all programs that classify “individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation and promote differential or preferential treatment of individuals on the basis of such classification.”
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Furthermore, the board already has a new class to replace the ones they scrapped. The new class is “Introductory Survey to 1877.” According to the Florida Department of Education statement, this new class is highly important and accurate.
They said in a statement that it will provide students 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.”
Moreover, they are not scrapping sociology entirely. According to Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, the sociology course will still be available. However, it would no longer be a general education course or a requirement.
POLL—Should Public Schools Include Critical Race Theory and Sex Education in Their Curriculum?
This is because “within the general education code, courses may not distort significant historical events or include curriculum that teaches identity politics or theories.” These new rules are based on the controversial SB 266, which the state legislature passed in May. Governor Ron DeSantis wasted no time in signing the bill into law.
Therefore, these new rules are not surprising to many. Since he assumed office, the general notion is that DeSantis is using Florida schools to prosecute a culture war. He started by reducing the amount of sexual awareness that school can teach their students.
In addition, he strongly believes that DEI is partial to some people, thereby making the concept irrelevant. As DEI started because of the injustice several minority groups had to face, one would expect the governor to know better.
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DEI rules help people like foreigners, people of color, LGBTQ+ members, and disabled people to gain some sort of equity in this terribly unfair world. Therefore, there is a level of privilege that it gives these people.
However, the minority would not need these “special privileges” if the world was fair to them. Scrapping DEI not only endangers these groups of people, but it also takes this country back a few steps.
Removing historical courses that show the good, bad, and ugly sides of history is also detrimental in the long run. Therefore, this move by the board will most likely do more harm than good.
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