FL Bill Requires Colleges To Promote “Western” Values

February 24, 2023 Christianists, Republicans

NBC News reports:

House Bill 999, introduced this week by Rep. Alex Andrade, a Republican representing Pensacola, would allow the state Board of Governors to give direction to universities on removing majors and minors in such subjects as critical race theory and gender studies and bar spending on programs or activities that support such curricula.

The Board of Governors oversees the state’s public universities, and 14 of the board’s 17 members are appointed by the governor.

Public postsecondary institutions would also be required, when applicable, to “promote the philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization and include studies of this nation’s historical documents,” the bill states.

PEN America reacts: 

It would virtually end academic freedom, shared governance, and institutional autonomy at all Florida public colleges and universities, replacing them with an environment dominated by fear, with free expression and open inquiry hiding in the shadows, perpetually under siege.

It would also require that all general education courses must promote “the values necessary to preserve the constitutional republic” through “traditional, historically accurate” coursework; and would ban courses in general education curricula “based on unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content,” as defined by political appointees.

Andrade appeared here earlier this week when he introduced a bill that would erase the press shield for confidential sources and make claims of anti-LGBTQ and racial discrimination “defamatory on their face.”



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