(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Legislators in Florida passed a bill preventing state-funded colleges from spending money on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programming.
The state House passed the bill 81-34, after passing through the Senate 27-12, the Daily Caller reported.
The act now moves to the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, where he will likely sign it.
The goal of the soon-to-be law is to prohibit the spending of tax dollars on partisan political programs that “promote or engage political or social activism.”
During the deliberations, Democrat state Rep. Dianne Hart argued that “whenever people shield their children from the truth, a generation of ignorance is born.” She did not specify what she meant by “the truth.”
Another Democratic lawmaker argued that “Florida’s brand” will be damaged by the change.
“This attack on higher education is hurting Florida’s brand,” said House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell.
“We have a very good higher-education system with lower costs than many other states,” Driskell added. “But these radical changes risk throwing our colleges and universities into chaos.”
On the other side of the aisle, Republican state legislators argued that the propaganda was bad for both students and institutions.
“DEI’s intellectual fragility makes campuses less safe, less intelligent and less free for the students who should be learning to think for themselves,” said Rep. Alex Andrade.
Another Republican representative, Randy Fine, accused leftists of using DEI to police the thoughts of anyone who does not agree with critical race theorists.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion, like so many other terms adopted by the woke left, is being used as a club to silence things, to say that if you don’t agree with them, you are somehow racist or homophobic or whatever other word that you want to use to criticize people,” Fine said.
“The fact of the matter is these terms have been hijacked by those who want to use them to bully and use them to shut down debate, to actually do the opposite of what these words are supposed to do,” he added.
The bill will require faculty committees to review general-education courses all students must take. The reviews may lead to the “removal, alignment, realignment, or addition” of courses, depending on how they fit the criteria recorded in the bill.
