ORLANDO, Fla. – The Florida Board of Education on Wednesday implemented new regulations that it says will restrict the use of public funds for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs within Florida College System institutions, according to a news release.
The board has also “for the first time” decided on how to define DEI, the release states, promising the rule change “affirmatively prohibits FCS institutions from using state or federal funds to administer programs that categorize individuals based on race or sex for the purpose of differential or preferential treatment.”
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Per the board, taxpayer funds may no longer be used to “promote DEI” at any of the 28 FCS colleges, which include Valencia College, Seminole State College of Florida, Polk State College, Palm Beach State College, Lake-Sumter State College, Eastern Florida State College, Daytona State College and College of Central Florida.
Such funds may also not be used for programs or campus activities that promote or engage in “political or social activism,” defined in the rule as “any activity organized with a purpose of effecting or preventing change to a government policy, action, or function, or any activity intended to achieve a desired result related to social issues, where the institution endorses or promotes a position in communications, advertisements, programs, or campus activities.”
Read the new funding rule below | Find the meeting minutes by clicking here
New Rule 6A-14.071 by Brandon Hogan on Scribd
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The release adds that the board has replaced the course “Principles of Sociology” with “a comprehensive general education core course in American History,” claiming it was a change made in order to “provide students with 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.”
“Higher education must return to its essential foundations of academic integrity and the pursuit of knowledge instead of being corrupted by destructive ideologies,” Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. said in a statement. “These actions today ensure that we will not spend taxpayers’ money supporting DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division in our society.”
SB 266 — the legislation that the board said it now partly aligns with, following the rule change — was signed into law at New College of Florida by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2023.
Florida House Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, sounded the alarm in November over the state Board of Governors’ proposal to institute this rule change, writing that conservatives found the sociology course “threatening” and claiming the state’s definitions were incredibly broad, the latter prompting her concern “that this will lead to censorship of faculty and students and will eliminate essential programs designed to ensure the success of every student.”
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