What’s going on in Florida? Governor DeSantis thinks that he should control what is taught in all public schools and in public higher education. He wants to make sure that everyone is exposed only to approved thoughts, his thoughts. He told all the state colleges and universities to report what they are spending on diversity, of which he disapproves. He has made it illegal to teach about racism, which he thinks is synonymous with critical race theory.
To understand Ron DeSantis and his ideology, you should first study critical race theory.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the state’s colleges and community colleges pledged not to “promote” critical race theory. What does that mean? Does it mean they will scrub the curriculum of any courses that teach about race and racism? Does it mean there will be no courses called “critical race theory?” I would love to hear from some professors in Florida.
The presidents of Florida’s 28 state and community colleges said in a statement on Wednesday that they would identify and eliminate, by February 1, any academic requirement or program “that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality.”
The unusual statement comes on the heels of a request by the office of the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, for public colleges and universities to submit comprehensive lists of their spending related to diversity initiatives and critical race theory. It’s unclear if Wednesday’s announcement is directly related to that request.
The presidents’ joint statement is unclear. Read into it what you will.
What is disturbing is the stench of thought control. I am gobsmacked by DeSantis’ total disregard for academic freedom and the First Amendment. Day after day, he chips away at norms, seeking the power to censor ideas he doesn’t like. Of course he goes after public schools and public higher education. But as he showed in his smack down of Disney, he’s quite willing to give orders to private corporations as well.
He appears to be growing into nativism, fascism, authoritarianism. It comes naturally to him.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Funny, I don’t remember any of the math courses which taught me the Pythogorean Theorem or the Quadratic Formula “compelling belief” in them.
phat phinger phone typing … yes, they taught me how to spell Pythagorean …
Pythogoras should not be believed, at an rate. He was a known liar.
Even Pythagoras said so.
Among other things , Pythogoras claimed that a^2 + c^2 = b^2
When every seventh grader knows that
a^2 + b^2 = c^2, as Pythagoras taught
Just learned that the source of the word Gleichschaltung was from the then still emerging field of electronics. Basically, it’s the idea that one plug fits universally. All that’s needed to make it work is a central, constant supply of the same thing that everything is dependent on.
The foul stench of this obnoxious fascist is now wafting across our nation.
Bien dicho.
I would respond to this, but I need to check with Ron DeSantis first to see what I think and can say.
Yes, my transformation into Flor-uh-duh Man is almost complete. Soon, I will be capable of thinking only Ron Thoughts, or Truthings.
You will have to run your thoughts thru the Rongorithm to filter out anything that might be offensive to the Grand Wizard of the KKK.
Gee. Let’s hope that the good white folks in Tallahassee are hard at work on that! Think how easy it would be then! No more having one’s head hurt from trying to think!
They cluld probably use a KKKbot for that .
Does Open AI make one of those? If not, they should get right on it. It would probably be a moneymaker.
DeSantis is requiring everything by requiring nothing. No one has ever been forced to “believe in” anything related to any subject. Even those who reject evolution are not denied the opportunity to study biology. So DeSantis has mastered the political art of doing nothing but sounding authoritative.
The minute someone is harmed by his attitude and brings a lawsuit, he will plead that he was only respecting individual freedom. His base thinks that protecting their freedom to distrust certain ideas fills this bill. Little do they know.
“Specifically, by February 1, 2023, the FCS presidents commit to having fully evaluated and removed any institutional instruction, training, and policies opposed to the forms of discrimination described in this statement.”
huh?
DeSantis bans anti-discrimination measures.
DeSantis latest stunt is to attack the NHL for trying to increase diversity
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/mike-freeman/2023/01/20/ron-desantis-uses-nhl-anti-black-agenda-fight-woke-wars/11082719002/p
Lord knows we can’t gave any people of color in hockey .
Where will all those KKK sports fans go? There won’t be any refuge left.
I don’t blame Ron DeSantis for this at all. But if the state’s colleges go along with it, then shame oh them.
By the way, Push by Sapphire was recently removed from the Portage High school library in Michigan. Portage, home of Pfizer and the Covid vaccine.
“The presidents of Florida’s 28 state and community colleges said in a statement on Wednesday that they would identify and eliminate, by February 1, any academic requirement or program “that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality.”
Typical lily-livered, chickenshit adminimal herd behavior. Discusting! Or any of the following: abominable
awful
creepy
distasteful
gruesome
hateful
horrific
loathsome
nasty
objectionable
obnoxious
odious
outrageous
repugnant
scandalous
shameless
shocking
vile
vulgar
cloying
foul
gross
nauseating
revolting
stinking
beastly
detestable
frightful
ghastly
hideous
horrid
icky
lousy
macabre
monstrous
noisome
offensive
repellent
rotten
scuzzy
sleazeball
sleazy
You know, now would be a time to lift the cussing moratorium on this blog. Just this once! Until the next time.
That’s quite a list! Probably will be banned in Florida with George Carlin’s top 7.
Who are these people? COLLEGE presidents?
And, next, revisiting the Scopes Trial.
Right wing extremists want a pass on being able to discriminate against certain types of people. What about civil rights laws that protect the rights of certain classes of people under Title VII?
Thought I should include link.
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2023/01/book-removed-from-portage-public-schools-after-parent-complaint.html
Scary stuff.
How very sad. Kalamazoo seemed like such a progressive place when I visited there the last time Diane spoke. An auditorium full of people who were thoughtful about public education. Imagine that.
I am so disgusted with Ron DeSantis. He put an election denier in the secretary of state’s office; a woman who relates to Qanon on the state Board of Education; a witch doctor as the surgeon general; and I could go on and on. I am sick of his “white fragility.” Always looking for a solution when there is no problem. If my grandchildren were going to college now, I would tell them to go out of state. My daughter, a 23- year teacher, deemed high impact over and over again and highly effective by the state, resigned from the school system rather than teach lies and half-truths.
Kudos to your daughter.
Not surprising that Florida has a large teacher shortage.
Your daughter should be commended for her integrity.
But no teacher should ever have to face the decision that your daughter did.
Unfirtunately, thousands of teachers across the country are facing that decision every day.
And the fact that so many teachers are leaving as z result is going to come back to haunt this country in a very big way.
By the time most Americans recognize that, it will be too late.
After reading this post, curious, I Googled synonyms for Hitler and found a list that fits DeSantis: autocrat, despot, fascist, tyrant, authoritarian, caesar, overlord, totalitarian.
And that was just the short list at the top. There are 76 total synonyms for Hitler but there should have been more. They left out DeStanis and Abbott.
https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/hitler
DeSatan is appropriate too.
Putz.
Re: The presidents of Florida’s 28 state and community colleges said in a statement on Wednesday that they would identify and eliminate, by February 1, any academic requirement or program “that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality.”
So here’s the thing. I can’t tell whether the presidents are cravenly capitulating to the Goobernor’s dicktum (sic) or whether they have carefully parsed their statement to sidestep the issue in court, as if to say, “We teach the truth, we don’t compel belief in it.”
Jon,
That’s what confused me too. They won’t teach CRT or they won’t teach students to believe in it?
I can tell you after meeting with my department and college president yesterday in Florida, colleges don’t object to discussing race and CRT issues. What is discouraged is not allowing other view points to be discussed and reviewed in such discussions. Additionally, respect for other opinions and voices must be treated with openness. Discussing historical issues, types of biases (explicit and implicit), and cultural perception is encouraged.
That’s good to hear!
Those president adminimals don’t have the ability to think like that.
Unfortunately, I think your interpretation is more plausible.
Far more likely that they have just caved to keep their jobs.
But if that is not the case, nothing is stopping them from saying so.
It’s actually a distinction without a difference at any rate.
If the President’s actually intend to back up their professors in “teaching the truth”, they wouldn’t do it with wishy washy legal “parsing” that can be interpreted as backing DeSantis — and certainly would be interpreted that way by any professor at a community college concerned about keeping their job.
Apart from that, there should be a law against legal “parsing — and the lawyers who engage in it.
I guess what would be far scarier is if they really believed their job is to “compel belief” in anything.
Oh well … No one expects a DeSantis Inquisition to try and do what even the Spanish Inquisition could not.
4,613,783 people voted for the florida governor.
1.5 million more than opponent.
Let that sink in.
4.6 MILLION PEOPLE voted for him.
To quote SNL… ‘What’s up with THAT?”
Scary. Seriously.
Only 4.6 million?
It’s Florida, I’m surprised it’s not more.
The average alligator undoubtedly has better sense.
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/7/BillText/er/PDF
Here is a link to the actual HB 7