Higher education bill would end CRT, DEI, ban certain majors, remove ‘CRT filter’ from hiring process

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – A bill filed in the Florida House would make sweeping changes to limit the influence of critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at public universities.

The bill bans certain majors, prohibits the funding programs that support CRT, and forbids universities from using diversity, equity, and inclusion statements, and CRT filters as part of the hiring process.

Rep. Robert Andrade, R-Pensacola, filed the bill on Tuesday.

It would prohibit expenditures that promote, support, or maintain any programs or campus activities that support diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as CRT.

The Board of Governors would periodically review the mission of each constituent university and provide updates or revisions to such mission as needed, according to the bill text.

In addition, it would prohibit majors and minors in subjects including CRT, Gender Studies, and Intersectionality. It is unclear whether the legislation allows higher level classes to teach CRT as an optional theory.

Andrade said the legislation would authorize the Boards of Trustees to engage on the hiring process and the staffing decisions that are made at universities. The legislation would also authorize the boards to review tenure status of faculty members.

“You know, we have a lot of, not only professors, but administrators of these universities that often times operate with impunity,” he said.

“They’re operating solely with taxpayer dollars, but a lot of times they kind of have their own little fiefdoms. And empowering the trustees to actually engage on that will help us actually, you know, pursue and affect, our legislative policies that we’re trying to implement statewide,” Andrade told Florida’s Voice.

Additionally, the bill will rename the “Florida Institute of Politics” to the “Florida Institute for Governance & Civics.”

It will also revise requirements for general education core courses.

The general education core courses may not “suppress or distort significant historical events, include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, such as Critical Race Theory, or define American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”

The newly-filed bill would revise academic and research excellence standards for preeminent state research universities.

It said civic discourse should recognize the importance of viewpoint diversity, intellectual rigor, and an “evidence-based approach to history.”

The legislation also elaborates that the Florida Institute for Governance and Civics must provide students with a hub that would provide academically rigorous scholarship and coursework on the origins of the American system of government.

It also lists out that general education courses are required to “promote the philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization and include studies of this nation’s historical documents.”

Andrade said universities have a mandate to improve and strengthen society as a whole.

“So making sure that graduates of our universities have a functioning understanding of our system of governance of what makes our system unique, is something that just bears repeating and reiteration in this context,” he said.

If passed, the bill would take effect July 1, 2023. To read the full bill text, click here.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has previously said they will work on making sure that universities are teaching in the “classical sense” and not “imposing ideological worldview on the students.”

He announced a series of proposals at the end of January that would eliminate all DEI and CRT “bureaucracies” at public universities.