Ron DeSantis Plans To Defund Diversity Programs In Florida Universities

The governor and potential 2024 presidential hopeful laid out a list of higher education “reforms” his administration aims to carry out, including banning DEI programs that help universities create a more supportive and inclusive space for staff and students from marginalized backgrounds. The state legislature will need to approve the plans before they go into effect.

“We are also going to eliminate all DEI and [critical race theory] bureaucracies in the state of Florida. No funding, and that will wither on the vine,” DeSantis said. “And I think that that’s very important because it really serves as an ideological filter, a political filter.”

The governor equated mandatory DEI trainings as “imposing an agenda” that constitutes “a drain on resources,” and claimed that having universities include diversity statements is no different than “making people take a political oath.”

The announcement is DeSantis’ latest attempt at turning Florida’s higher education spaces into incubators for far-right ideas. The governor has already unsuccessfully tried to ban workplace diversity initiatives. He also pushed right-wing higher education officials to ban discussions of “critical race theory” and prides himself on the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits public school teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity.

Last week, the Florida Board of Education approved a training for public schools that focuses on preventing children from reading books about racial justice and books with LGBTQ themes. DeSantis also recently announced a statewide ban on a new Advanced Placement course on African American history ― a move that led some high school students to accuse the governor of censoring public education.