Florida House passes anti-DEI teacher training bill after heated debate

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Legislation prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion, also known as DEI, training in teacher preparation programs received much debate before its passage on the House floor on Friday.

The bill, HB 1291, was sponsored by Reps. John Snyder, R-Stuart, and Berny Jacques, R-Clearwater. It passed 81-31.

According to the staff analysis, the bill prohibits teacher preparation programs from distorting significant historical events or including a curriculum or instruction that teaches identity politics, violates the Florida Educational Equity Act or is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the U.S. and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.

The preparation programs exist to allow pathways for individuals to become certified teachers in the state of Florida.

Several members offered amendments seeking to reform the bill and defend DEI initiatives.

Democratic lawmakers centered the debate on the argument that the bill was rejecting Florida’s history of racism.

Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, expressed how she was “insulted” by the legislation and was offended that the bill would stop the teaching of accurate history.

Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, said that the bill was a violation of an individual’s freedom of speech and that it reinforced systemic racism.

Jacques defended the bill, explaining how the the arguments against the legislation were content-based claims, even though it didn’t specifically target any issue.

“This bill is not about any kind of topic that you can’t teach,” he said. “It’s just, if you’re gonna teach it, don’t distort it based on identity politics, notions of systemic racism and all sorts of woke garbage.”

Driskell raised a point of order, voicing her concerns with the use of the world “garbage” by Jacques in the previous and other instances.

Jacques then continued his debate with the usage of the word “rubbish” as a replacement, to which the Democratic side continued to raise concerns with.

“As I was mentioning, woke rubbish that is being forced upon our students has to be stopped,” he said. “And we’re not stopping the teaching of the Jim Crow era or about the Tuskegee Experiment, what this bill prevents is you distorting that history to fit your ideological narratives that indoctrinates the children instead of educating the children.”

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, added how the bill has nothing to do with stopping the teaching of slavery, Jim Crow or racism.

“You have to read the bill,” he said. “You have to know your facts.”

“This bill simply said, ‘teach the history.'” Fine added. “And it bothers me, as the father of boys, who made the decisions to teach them history. My children know more about American history than probably most of you in this room, and they knew it when they were little because I wanted them to know that America was great, but America did bad things too.”

Rep. Alex Rizo, R-Hialeah, said that the debate should be centered around the actual content of the bill. He argued that it simply “teaches teachers how to teach.”

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, sponsored the Senate version of the bill, which currently awaits chamber approval now that it has completed all of its committee stops.