Is Florida the State Where Education Goes to Die?

 

“The board shall periodically review the mission of each 66 constituent university and provide updates or revisions to such 67 mission as needed; examine existing academic programs at each 68 constituent university for alignment with the university's 69 mission; and provide direction to each constituent university on 70 removing from its programs any major or minor in Critical Race 71 Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality, or any derivative 72 major or minor of these belief systems, which is any major or 73 minor that engenders beliefs in the concepts defined in s. 74 1000.05(4)(a).” 

Excerpt from Florida House Bill 999 introduced by DeSantis supporters in furtherance of earlier executive orders and the Stop Woke Act.

“I'm in South Florida. It's a hotbed of fraud, whether it's identity fraud, or PPP fraud, and health care fraud, but this is something that we have not seen before.” 

 Fernando Porras, Health and Human Services assistant special agent in charge leading an oversight investigation of thousands of Florida generated fraudulent nursing degrees.

It not difficult to reach the conclusion that “education” is not one of the main priorities of too many “educational” institutions – schools, colleges and universities – in Florida. We know it’s not a priority in state schools, where libraries have been culled, lesson plans materially altered, textbooks have been severely edited and teachers who won’t tow the party line have been fired… and face prosecution or civil lawsuits. The “don’t say gay” initiative just cost the state’s largest employer – Disney World – a massive change in their tax status, because Disney management supported its LGBTQ+ employees against legislation and executive orders promulgated by Florida Governor Ron “I am really running for President” DeSantis banning instruction in state school that covered “critical race” (gender, religion, and ethnicity) theory.

The thinly disguised White Christian nationalist cry, buried without any subtlety, the word “woke” is DeSantis contribution to the English language, although we don’t have his specific definition of that term. Black issues and campaigns, the history of slavery, the Jim Crow era and contemporary discrimination, are now forbidden subject areas… to prevent young White minds from believing that they should bear any guilt. Likewise, any mention of any status or controversy within the LGBTQ+ community is completely banned.

Waves of discriminatory rulings are washing across Florida. Like: “New College of Florida's Board of Trustees abolished the office handling diversity, equity and inclusion programs during a contentious and emotional meeting Tuesday [2/28] that included testimony from students worried that a board reshaped by Gov. Ron DeSantis is making the school unwelcoming to minorities.” USA Today, March 1st. White Christian nationalists rule the misnamed Sunshine State. Scholars? Education is clearly an afterthought.

DeSantis is an open admirer and ardent follower of Hungarian strongman and GOP darling, Viktor Orbán, who effectively expelled an entire university from his country, because it was too liberal. Despite massive protests, Central European University was forced to leave Budapest and resettle in Vienna, Austria. Orbán’s obsession with White Christian values is very much mirrored in DeSantis’ view of what America should be. Michelle Goldberg, writing for the February 27th New York Times, embellishes:

“Echoing Orban, House Bill 999 bars Florida’s public colleges and universities from offering gender studies majors or minors, as well as majors or minors in critical race theory or ‘intersectionality,’ or in any subject that ‘engenders beliefs’ in those concepts. The bill prohibits the promotion or support of any campus activities that ‘espouse diversity, equity and inclusion or critical race theory rhetoric.’ This goes far beyond simply ending D.E.I. programming, and could make many campus speakers, as well as student organizations like Black student unions, verboten.

“There’s more. Under House Bill 999, general education core courses couldn’t present a view of American history ‘contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence,’ creating obvious limits on the teaching of subjects like slavery and the Native American genocide. The bill also says that general education courses shouldn’t be based on ‘unproven, theoretical or exploratory content,’ without defining what that means. ‘State officials would have unfettered discretion to determine which views are ‘theoretical’ and banned from general education courses,’ says a statement by the libertarian-leaning Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

“Finally, the bill centralizes political control over hiring by allowing faculty to be cut out of the process. Right now, some boards of trustees have the power to veto hiring recommendations made by faculty and administrators, though Young says they rarely use it. Under House Bill 999, rather than an up-or-down vote on candidates vetted by university bodies, trustees could just hire whomever they want. ‘They don’t even have to hire someone who applied through the regular process,’ said Young. ‘They can just say, ‘Here’s my friend Joe, he’s going to be the new history professor.’ ’

“This would give DeSantis’s cronies enormous power over who can teach in Florida’s colleges and universities. Last month, I wrote about the governor’s campaign to transform the New College of Florida, a progressive public institution, into a bastion of conservatism. At the time, some faculty members suspected that DeSantis’s new trustees might find their grandiose plans stymied by bureaucratic obstacles. Young believes that House Bill 999 would sweep many of those obstacles away.

“The bill, of course, is only one part of DeSantis’s culture war. His administration has already limited what can be taught to K-12 students about race, sex and gender. (Some teachers removed all books from their classroom shelves while they waited for them to be reviewed for forbidden content.)” 

But if this DeSantis effort is not enough, the disdain for legitimate academic values in Florida got another slam from the private “for profit education” sector. Accelerating during the height of the COVID epidemic, “More than 7,600 aspiring nurses cheated the health care system and obtained fraudulent nursing degrees from three South Florida nursing schools, according to federal authorities, in a scheme health care professionals say could undermine trust in the profession.

“Some 2,600 of those individuals used fake diplomas to take the nursing board exam (NCLEX) and passed, giving them access to work in health care facilities across the country. The diplomas were issued by Siena College in Broward County, the Palm Beach School of Nursing in Palm Beach County and Sacred Heart International Institute in Broward County — all of which are now closed. Though the scheme involved Florida schools, it affected multiple states.

“The investigation, known as Operation Nightingale, found that the national scheme began in 2016 and ended in 2021, accumulating more than $100 million…. ‘We sent in — on several occasions — undercover agents to purchase these degrees as they were explained to us and they were able to purchase the degrees having no medical background or having taken any course —they just paid the amount [$17,000],’” HHS investigator Porras explained. Yahoo!News, February 27th. A wonderful combination where real education in fact goes to die. It seems to be a Florida tradition, a vision of what the United States would look like if DeSantis actually did become President.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the state famous for swampland fraud, alligators, mosquitoes and Mar-a-Lago, now brings you a state where true education has been replaced by profiteers and political indoctrination.