DEI programs officially OUT at Florida universities

Hotair ^ | 05/15/2023 | Beege Welborn

[SeekAndFind]

You can probably hear the cracks forming in hardened leftist bastions throughout institutions of higher learning from here.

WATCH — @realchrisrufo celebrates Governor DeSantis’ ELIMINATION of DEI.

“This legislation will immediately abolish all of those programs. DONE.” pic.twitter.com/mMFMLcbyJr

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) May 15, 2023

And the high-pitched keening.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday banning tax dollars from being used in state colleges for diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI) in a sweeping measure that also places restrictions on classroom discussion of race.

While DEI programs are meant to assist in building racial, social and religious diversity among university faculty and students, the governor and other conservative critics have said they promote left-wing politics and sow racial divisions on campuses.

“DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,” DeSantis said at the bill signing on the campus of New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college, on Monday.

“And that has no place in our public institutions.”

#BREAKING: Ron DeSantis announces signing of law to ban diversity, equity and inclusion departments in state universities

"[We will] reorient our universities back to our traditional mission [to] treat people as individuals […] DEI [has] no place in our public institutions." pic.twitter.com/EsSzbj4aVn

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) May 15, 2023

“This has basically been used as a veneer to impose an ideological agenda…”

Screencap @ChristinaPushaw

The DEI funding side of it hasn’t been huge in the scope of dollars spent across the state university system itself – about $35M in 2022 according to a report compiled in answer to the governor’s request.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis now knows how much every public higher education institution in the state spends on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and critical race theory (CRT).

What he intends to do with that information remains an open question.

In the final days of 2022, DeSantis demanded that all state colleges and universities, as well as Florida’s Department of Education, report their spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory-related programming to his budget office by Jan. 13.

…While the 28 universities in the Florida College System and the 12 State University System universities all complied, only the spending by the State University System has been released to the public.

Those 12 institutions reported spending about $34.5 million in total, according to a 35-page document released by the Florida Department of Education.

It will be interesting to see what adjustments are made to staffing moving forward. And if other states have the nerve to follow suit.

It’s not just DEI that’s being eradicated – it’s racial-justice-based “history” curriculums like the 1619 Project and gender equity studies that are getting the boot as well.

…Courses can’t be “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institution of the United States and were made to maintain social, political, and economic inequities,” the law stipulates.

“If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley, some of these other places, that’s fine,” DeSantis said. “If that’s what you want to do, there’s nothing wrong with that. … But for us, our tax dollars, we want to focus on the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be.”

So many of the Left’s bromides are falling no matter how they work and flat-out lie to shore them up, especially against this governor.

For instance, The Daily Signal took a good hard look at the book ban – one of the really big sticks they love to try to beat FL with – and found it was a work of “fiction.”

“What we’re seeing here is a resurgence of widespread censorship in America,” Nadine Farid Johnson recently told The Wall Street Journal. Johnson is the Washington director of PEN America and co-author of its report claiming to identify 2,532 books banned in public schools during the 2021-2022 school year.

PEN America advocates on behalf of poets, essayists, and novelists, and it shows: Its report is almost as fictional as the work of the writers it represents.

It is simply false that 2,532 books were removed from schools during the 2021-2022 school year. We know this is false because we examined online card catalogues and found that 74% of the books PEN America identified as banned from school libraries are actually listed as available in the catalogues of those school districts. In many cases we could see that copies of those books are currently checked out and in use by students.

When an alphabet organization tries to grandstand to declare FL unsafe for gays and lesbians, it makes a big splash in the papers and media, but not so much in real life. The Pensacola Pride Memorial Day Weekend 2023 is still on, and still the largest gathering in the country with usually about 200,000 LGB+ folks coming in.

The largest Memorial Day weekend pride event in the country will move forward with its 2023 event on Pensacola Beach despite Florida advocacy groups issuing a state travel advisory following the passage and pushing of controversial bills by Gov. Ron DeSantis this legislative session.

LGBT Memorial Weekend Pensacola is a four-day pride celebration that draws in crowds upwards of 200,000 from all across the U.S. For many, it’s a safe haven where gay, lesbian and transgender people can come together and outwardly express themselves without fear of ostracism.

Outlawing drag queen shows for children doesn’t bother them in the least because they have no interest in having children anywhere near any of their very adult events. They never have. It’s the transgender activist freaks nationally who are pushing the envelope and the FL boycott.

“Don’t say gay” didn’t gain much traction either, especially when one simply asks “Where does it say that in the bill?” Because it doesn’t and they have no answer but sputtering, as they cannot justify why a 6 year old needs to be alerted to sexuality issues in an elementary classroom.

Another so #sadz loss for the anti-Florida crowd.

We have a lot to be proud of here and can only build on that success as they break free of ideological yokes in higher education.

It’ll be a wicked learning curve for somebody if they can pull it off

[arkfreepdom]

We have to start calling it out everywhere.

[vmpolesov]

Good. I was looking at an adjunct job for Physics instructor at a comm. college in my state and the application requires a DEI statement. For Physics.

[dfwgator]

Big Win In The DeSantis Column.

I know heads are going to explode at my Alma Mater.

[gas_dr]

I would love to hear the usual suspects explain how this is deep state control and DeSantis not being a real conservative. I look forward to a robust primary in the Republican Party. The only proper coronation was a couple weeks ago in England. We do not have political coronations on our side of the aisle.

[psjones]

Spot on...Trump and his supporters seem
to want a coronation...Democrats did that with Hillary.. Not a good idea to just have one viable candidate, imo.

[Bullish]

How about banning Marxists from all teaching positions while you’re at it? That’s really where the real problem comes from.

[GOPJ]

Here’s the deal - in Florida you can’t turn a sexual kink into a political sledge hammer in our state institutions.

A man who flashes - exposes himself - to children at a school bus stop doesn’t transform into a ‘civil rights’ worker when he does the same in a public school locker room.

[momincombatboots]

I work at a religiously affiliated hospital.. it is required by CMS to have one also. It is alway front page top of the employee home page.
CMS will not pay if you do not submit.

[ViLaLuz]

I’d make a DIE statement... against DIE.