Ron DeSantis

• 
• SOURCE: Associated Press
  3/22/2023
  

  DeSantis Moves to Expand "Don't Say Gay" Law Coverage to all Grades

  The move would exempt lessons in state-mandated health instruction, but such courses would require allowing parents to opt out of them. The change could be implemented by the state board of education without legislative approval. 

• 
• SOURCE: Education Week
  3/16/2023
  

  Confusion Over Book Bans in Florida is a Feature, Not a Bug, of New Policies

  The state education commissioner of Florida, Manny Diaz, has insisted that the state is not banning books. Civil liberties and library groups say that vague laws and public threats of prosecution are pushing educators to remove books without technically being forced to do so, which is the point. 

• 
• SOURCE: Miami Herald
  3/19/2023
  

  Florida Universities on Defensive as State Attacks Diversity Initiatives

  Interviews with Miami Herald reporters show the behind-the-scenes work university faculty and staff are weighing how much compliance will be required with new state laws. The DeSantis administration may achieve more performative than substantive results, but uncertainty and anxiety are common on campus. 

• 
• SOURCE: Tampa Bay Times
  3/9/2023
  

  Governor, Florida's Faculty are Doing Their Jobs. Let Them Continue

  by Elizabeth Strom

  Florida's higher education reform agenda imagines professors to are engaged in indoctrination, but will prevent them from doing their best research and teaching. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  3/10/2023
  

  What are the Evils and Dangers Targeted by Book Bans?

  A study of the books flagged for restriction in Duval County, Florida in the last two years suggests that a particular political vision is driving the bans, focusing on LGBTQ themes and racial and religious diversity. But a fear of adolescents' developing autonomy also seems to be in play. 

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  3/8/2023
  

  Do 3 GOP Governors' Higher Ed Policies Forecast the 2024 Election

  While none have announced their candidacy, Greg Abbott of Texas and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia are joining Ron DeSantis in making aggressive moves on public higher education that may signal a key issue in the GOP primaries. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/8/2023
  

  Edsall: Florida's Education Legislation Threatens Academic Freedom. Opinions Differ Whether That's Good

  by Thomas Edsall

  Columnist Thomas Edsall checked in with historian Amna Akbar, a DEI critic, about Florida's education legislation. Akbar isn't a fan, though may conservative think-tank fellows interviewed are. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/8/2023
  

  DeSantis Wants Us to Ignore What Black Children in Florida Need

  Historian Marvin Dunn's "Teach the Truth" tours show that Florida's history can't be taught without acknowledging white racism and terrorism. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  3/3/2023
  

  Florida Faculty Concerned by Potential Ban on Majors

  U of Florida history department chair Jon Sensbach "said the legislation would take state control of higher education to a new level in American history."

• 
• SOURCE: Tampa
  3/4/2023
  

  New College Prof: What We Lose by Rejecting Competence and Expertise

  by Aaron Hillegas

  Courting Trump's base by copying his message that "stewardship is for suckers," a New College professor warns that DeSantis has appointed "chuckleheads" to run the college, something that won't end well for anyone. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Forum
  3/6/2023
  

  Fear and Loathing in Florida

  by Samuel Hoadley-Brill

  "Much like 'voter fraud,' the term 'critical race theory' can mean whatever DeSantis needs it to mean to justify his anti-democratic agenda."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/27/2023
  

  Review: DeSantis's Book is a Campaign Tome Written by ChatGPT

  The Florida governor's book attempts to hide his aggressively right-wing policy agenda around education, abortion, and voting rights behind platitudes about hard work and conviction. A reviewer says its hard to imagine the volume winning converts. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  2/24/2023
  

  The Bankrupt Vision of the College Board

  by Annie Abrams

  "We have endowed the College Board with the power to shape millions of minds with its profitable exams. In turn, it holds students hostage for college tuition, stifles teachers, and destroys space for debating difficult topics."

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  2/28/2023
  

  Students are the Victims of DeSantis's Education War in Florida

  Ron DeSantis's education policies are driven by what will rile up the most reactionary voters in the state and have little do do with rectifying the growing problems with student achievement and teacher retention that are actually putting the state's schools in crisis, argue two Floridian writers. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  2/27/2023
  

  There's a Long History of Indoctrination in Florida Schools—on the Right

  by Tera W. Hunter

  The author's experiences with a state mandated course contrasting "Americanism" with "Communism" echo in today's attacks on curriculum, and the exclusion of ideas challenging a social order of economic and racial inequality. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/27/2023
  

  Can Republicans Rally Around DeSantis as an "Electable" Choice?

  by Robert Fleegler

  In the wake of disastrous overreach by House Republicans in impeaching Bill Clinton, the party cohered around George W. Bush as a candidate without Beltway baggage. If the party can't do the same thing in 2024, they risk being dragged down by Donald Trump. 

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  2/27/2023
  

  DeSantis Higher Ed Bill Heads for Legislature

  DeSantis ally Chris Rufo tweeted that the bill "is channeling the sentiment of the voters, who have demanded that taxpayer dollars stop subsidizing left-wing racialist ideology and partisan political activism. Democracy returns.”

• 
• SOURCE: American Federation of Teachers
  2/27/2023
  

  AAUP and American Fed. of Teachers: Florida Bill "Would Destroy Higher Education as We Know It"

  "Simply put, it would make Florida’s colleges and universities into an arm of the DeSantis political operation."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/17/2023
  

  Who's Afraid of Black History?

  by Henry Louis Gates

  The protestations of Ron DeSantis aside, American schools today carry the legacy of a massive neoconfederate indoctrination campaign that distorted the meaning of the Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, justified racist terrorism, and erased ongoing debates—including among Black Americans—about the meaning of freedom and democracy. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/22/2023
  

  Ron DeSantis is Making History a Political Issue; What does His Book Say?

  by David Waldstreicher

  Nobody paid much attention to the Florida governor's 2011 book "Dreams from Our Founding Fathers." Maybe we should now—it spells out a justification for a deeply conservative view of the constitution that dismisses the significance of racism in the founding and in the doctrine of originalism.