When Ron DeSantis held a press conference to celebrate his latest attacks on academic freedom, he sneeringly said, “If you want to study gender ideology, go to Berkeley,” because universities in Florida will focus on workforce preparation (which he thinks is a “classical education,” a sure sign that he never had one).
California Governor Gavin Newsom enjoys trading punches with DeSantis, and he sent out this reply:
Diane –
Ron DeSantis says if people want to study “niche subjects” they should go to Berkeley, but down in Florida they are going to focus on “the basics.”
His supporters chuckled. They thought it was a sick burn.
But some education is in order:
Six of the top ten public universities are located in California and the most popular majors at UC Berkeley are Cellular Biology, Computer Science, and Quantitative Economics.
That’s Math, Science and Technology.
It also probably explains why California outperforms Florida in all of those categories while having ten times the number of biotech companies as Florida and three times as many tech jobs as Florida.
But at least DeSantis got some laughs for his flailing presidential campaign…
Team Newsom
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think everything DeSantis says is for a specific audience that lives inside the MAGA bubble. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks outside that MAGA bubble of brainless thugs. DeSantis also doesn’t seem to be able to count or he’d know that by catering to the MAGA mob, he is catering to a small population and ignoring the majority of Americans, who are not ignoring the vile bile he’s spewing.
His campaign seems to have confused backward, rural Flor-uh-duh with the country. LOL.
That’s all, thd Republican Party candidates can do, the spitting contest, because, they lacked, any skills of, governing a state, besides, I’m guessing, that, DeSantis is, starting go worry about his opponent in the election he thinks he can, win…
Mean spirited DeSantis is hyperpartisan. He cannot resist an opportunity to criticize California or New York, his favorite targets, despite the fact DeSantis is woefully wrong. My nephew was in the doctoral program in quantitative economics at Berkeley, and the program is extremely demanding. I am glad Newsom stood up to the lying bully that trades in misinformation and lies. DeSantis is all bluster and little substance.
Team Tolerance 1. Team Intolerance 0.
These types of comparisons are pointless. Whatever higher education superiority California has over Florida is the result of actions taken long ago. The current Governors of the two states have had little impact on this matter.
I disagree. It’s true that Gavin Newsom did not create California’s great public universities but he’s right to defend them against DeSantis’ insults.
It’s also the case that DeSantis’ wave of laws infringing on academic freedom and the curriculum will damage Florida’s public universities. As will his practice of installing unqualified politicians into college presidencies.
I have heard that professors in Florida are looking for job opportunities outside the state.
I have no doubt that Florida public universities will run into difficulties when they try to recruit top scholars and researchers.
No academic wants to be subject to the whims of a politician who demands obedience.
DeSantis is having an impact that will cause big problems for Florida’s education system, Kindergarten through university.
Newsom knows what California has and supports making it better – that does make a difference.
It is true that CA public U’s/ colleges have long [always] been superior to FL’s. However, FL’s began improving significantly in the 2000’s. I don’t know whether that was maintained, but the current govr has set them on a declining path. Considering that successive govrs since Jeb Bush have sent FL’s K12 pubsch on a path to decline [doubled-down on by DeSantis], I suspect the negative trajectory DeSantis has put in place for public tertiary ed will continue after he’s gone.
Go Gavin! I am so proud of my governor for standing up to the wannabe fascist from Florida. And as a Cal grad, I heartily agree with Newsom’s statement. Even though my degree in Russian Language and Literature would probably be considered “woke”, lol.
Thank you, Team Newsom, for a hearty, knowing laugh. Sick return burn! If Ron DeSantis applied to Berkeley, he would be rejected based solely on lack of merit. He could get into any Florida university or a California school like SDSU. It’s one of few party schools of the Left Coast. So could Supreme Court Justice BK. He likes beer.
You reveal yourself to be very uninformed. DeSantis has an undergraduate degree from Yale and a Harvard law degree. He would easily meet UC-Berkeley’s academic standards, although he might be rejected for being a white male.
I know DeSantis has a BA from Yale and a law degree from Harvard. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley also have Ivy League credentials.
That’s why I’m so disappointed that he signs bill after bill attacking academic freedom, attacking gays, attacking parents’ right to get the medical care they want for their own children, attacking drag performers, creating a private army controlled by him, criminalizing migrants, squabbling with Disney, and showing himself to be a hateful, petty, vindictive dictator who is drunk with power.
The Christian fundamentalists–our version of the Taliban Morality Police–are upset. Remember the Bob Dylan lyric, “There’s something happening here and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” Well, that’s what’s happening. We are in the middle of MASSIVE cultural change. Look at the polls of young people. They reject Bronze Age religious superstition. They reject racism and sexism. They know the difference between sex and gender and understand that the latter is as fluid as you want it to be. They embrace LGBTQX folks and exploration of one’s identity. They favor Medicare for all. And parental leave. And DACA. They say that they would have no problem with voting for a Socialist.
And this has the fundies really freaked out. So, they are trying to deal with these changes by passing Anti-Woke laws, by scaring teachers and administrators and district attorneys–as if these people were the source of the changes that they don’t like. LOL. Idiots. Clueless.
What they are doing is like trying to unscramble an egg by pushing parts of it around, by removing parts of it from the bowl.
THESE ARE GENERAL CULTURAL CHANGES. They are EVERYWHERE in our culture–on television, in movies, in popular song, on the internet–EVERYWHERE. They are the air young people are breathing, the water they are drinking. They are in the conversations they hold WITH ONE ANOTHER.
Strong-arming a school into firing some teacher for showing a Disney movie isn’t going to change this stuff. What other young people think means a LOT more to them than what some school official said in a letter to parents. LOL.
In fact, nothing short of widespread state violence would change any of what is happening. The morons behind these current extremist crusades–the books bans, etc., are clueless. They don’t understand what is happening and how utterly ineffective their approach is. If anything, it just drives people further away from their repressive views.
Pugs: Get with the freaking program. Wake up. It’s the 21st century, not the 12th.
Mamie said the best thing today. She says you can’t tell young people not to say gay. She can’t even stop them from saying F. The more you try to censor, the more they do it.
yup
👏👏👏👏👏
And, because of DeSantis, the college education of the “deep south” will, fall, way, way, way behind the rest of the levels of higher ed in the rest of the U.S., turning Florida into, one of the, most, uneducated, states of, America…the Republicans already, erased the history of the Civil War and of, slavery from the social studies texts, so, nothing is, surprising anymore.
I have no clue to what you are trying to say with the two pics. Please help me out by explaining a little. Thanks!
It’s just two photos that offer glimpses into the souls of Gavin Newsom and Meatball Ron.
That’s Kimberly Gilfoyle on the carpet with Newsom.
One might think that DeSantis’s Yale bachelor’s degree was wasted.
Very difficult to get behind anything Newsom says given the state of CA under his hypocritical reign. Do we want him championing education policy?
What Gavin Newso said comparing higher education in Florida and California is true. Should we listen To Newsom or to DeSantis, who wants to turn all the public universities to workforce preparation, while cleansing them of teaching critical race theory and gender studies.
How about neither? Did we listen to Newson’s Covid policies the he himself ignored? How about his policies on crime and the homeless? Is he right on education and somehow wrong on everything else?
He is right that California public universities have greater academic freedom than those in Florida. And no public university in Florida is comparable to Berkeley or UCLA. Do you disagree?
Not in football!!!
One thing I have really liked about Newsome over the past two years is that he is willing to throw a punch. I wish the rest of the Democratic Party would follow suit.
Agreed. Newsom is a stand-up guy.
Stand up guy? Please. He’s decimated CA and is a classic ‘do what I say not what I do’ hypocrite career politician. Total embarrassment.
Do you think Florida’s universities are better than California’s? That’s the issue in this post.
Go woke Go broke…follow the money. Why is California have the highest tuitions sold to anyone in the world who can pay the most allowing the universities to a tremendous profit while the Californian citizens get the boot and have to go to other states like Florida for education…the university’s leaders and the California political leaders have sold out their own people. They have been a wrecking crew and the universities progress will erode just like the economy and quality of life in California. Fire Newsome and Hire a Desantis type person who has common sense, doesn’t get freaky woked up and does what’s needed for California’s real economy and our children’s right for future education in the state they live.
California’s Universities vrs Floridas Universities futures will be determined by the people in POWER! Tick, tick, tick:)
Will, good advice for people who want to live under a fascist leader, with a docile legislature. Good advice for those who hate diversity, hate gays, hate academic freedom, want to sensor whatever they hate. Thanks. But not for me.
Enjoy your freedom to have a choice and a voice. As with Newsome and a broken voting system it seems that is being compromised! I prefer Trump as my leader of the Republic of America for the people by the people. Hate should not be pursued thru diversity or any other means that lowers the existence and opprotunity of all truthful well mannered/educated people. God Bless
If you want to be led by an ignorant sexual predator, you are free to do so.
I initially wanted to ignore your comment because you have obviously fallen for the snake oil. But you deny your peril through the theological myth of a Donald Trump that does not exist. Trump has failed in every endeavor, business or political, for one reason (4 bankruptcies, failed casinos, anything named Trump, {university, steaks, foundation}, and four straight failed election cycles are pretty good evidence of this. When his organizations are reduced to ashes he has found a way to profit handsomely. You can believe that he believes in the American people all you want, but the fact remains that he thinks that all of us are rubes. He has actually said this numerous times. And why not? He continues to laugh to the bank while laundering billions with his buddies from Saudi Arabia and his Russian cohorts. He is totally transactional in everything he does because it benefits him. Period. He will dump you too, if he hasn’t already, when he sees that MAGA is done. Like the frog in the proverbial pot of warming water, you will continue to wallow in Trumps poison until the end.