DeSantis signs bill defunding diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Florida universities

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill Monday that bans public colleges in the state from using funds on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, the latest advance in his battle with higher education.

DeSantis signed the bill at the New College of Florida, the liberal arts school where he recently replaced the school’s board of trustees with conservatives who promptly dissolved the university’s DEI department. 

Speaking behind a podium adorned with a sign declaring Florida “The Education State,” DeSantis said DEI efforts were an attempt to “impose an ideological agenda” on students and faculty and promote “exclusion” and “discrimination.”

“This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida,” he declared. 

The governor said students who want to study areas such “gender ideology” should go to schools in other states, such as the University of California, Berkeley. 

The law also says general education courses required for all students at a university “may not distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, violates, or is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.”

Freedom for Individual Rights and Express (FIRE), a free speech organization, lambasted DeSantis for signing the measure and encouraged college professors who are impacted by it to call them.

“The expansion of the Stop WOKE Act is just as unconstitutional as the first version. Florida’s universities should be places open to the free exchange of ideas. When lawmakers start voting ideas off the table, no idea is safe from censorship,” FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh said.

Another bill the governor signed bans schools from making students or faculty sign diversity statements, calling them “loyalty oaths.” 

“It is really requiring you to sign up to support an ideological agenda,” he said. 

The moves are guaranteed to escalate tensions between DeSantis and the universities following last year, when he signed a bill to limit tenure at public colleges.

—Updated at 3:45 p.m.