Departments

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Florida

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    2/7/2023

    It Won't Stay in Florida

    United Faculty of Florida President: "Since 2021, DeSantis has pushed through efforts to compel state-sponsored speech on campus, dismantle oversight, encourage corruption-breeding secrecy and invade the personal lives of all higher ed community members."

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    2/6/2023

    DeSantis's War on Universities Goes Beyond the Influential "Powell Memo"

    by Len Gutkin

    Although the future Supreme Court Justice did lay out a plan to contest ideological control over universities, Chamber of Commerce attorney Lewis Powell was concerned above all with the power of big business to dominate society without opposition or criticism. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    2/6/2023

    Florida is Working to Roll Back a Century of Academic Freedom Protections

    by Glenn C. Altschuler and David Wippman

    Although Florida's "STOP Woke" and "Don't Say Gay" legislation has drawn attention, a far more radical claim is hiding in the state's court cases in defense of the laws: that there is no intellectual freedom for state university professors, whose speech is identical to the policies of the state. 

  • 2/6/2023

    Historians Mobilize to Fight Back Against Right-Wing Attacks

    by Margaret Power

    Historians for Peace and Democracy condemns recent legislation restricting the content of history classes and libraries and censoring the freedom to teach and learn about racism and LGBTQ history. The group urges college faculty to join with their local K-12 educators and librarians. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    1/25/2023

    Florida's AP Fight Latest Battle in a Very Old Education War

    by Bethany Bell

    The state's rejection of the proposed curriculum as "indoctrination" stands on the foundation laid by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to establish the Lost Cause myth as the center of history education in the South for generations. 

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    1/30/2023

    On Florida's Erasure of Black History

    by Lynn Pasquerella and Mary Dana Hinton

    The Florida AP decision raises a host of troubling questions about what the state hopes to accomplish, with ominous implications for political enfranchisement, democratic deliberation, and civic connection. 

  • SOURCE: TIME
    2/1/2023

    Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham on the AP Af-Am Studies Controversy

    by Olivia B. Waxman

    The Harvard historian, one of the principal evaluators of the AP curriculum, says that the most prominent public statements about the pilot course reflect misunderstanding or deception about what its contents really are. 

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    1/31/2023

    If the Courts Won't Stop DeSantis Attacks on Higher Ed, What Will?

    by John Warner

    Academics have turned to the rhetoric of academic freedom to condemn the governor's moves to increase control over higher ed. The problem is that the public doesn't care about academic freedom—but they might be made to care about politicizing state colleges. 

  • SOURCE: Organization of American Historians
    2/1/2023

    Organization of American Historians Statement on AP African American Studies

    "The OAH further rejects the characterization of these scholars and their scholarship as examples of “woke indoctrination,” and instead recognize them as central to the interdisciplinary research and teaching of African American history and culture, as well as American history more broadly."

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    1/31/2023

    Florida's Higher Ed Policy Push Gets Bigger

    by Francie Diep and Emma Pettit

    Tenure, diversity and equity programming, and the diversion of resources to favored programs devoted to "the actual philosophy which shaped Western civilization" are among the features of the state's higher ed agenda. 

  • SOURCE: Why Are We Like This?
    1/28/2023

    The Case of the Disappearing Libraries Feat. Judd Legum

    Journalist Judd Legum has been following the story of Florida teachers whose districts have told them Florida's new educational laws require them to close or remove their classroom libraries unless all the books are specifically approved by the state. 

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    2/1/2023

    A Reading List of Authors Removed from the AP African American Studies Course

    The College Board has made revisions to its pilot African American Studies course that appear to follow the criticisms made by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Here's a collection of essays by many of the scholars representing diverse Black intellectual traditions whose ideas will not be part of the course going forward. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    1/31/2023

    Florida Districts to Teachers: Hide Your Books or Risk Felony Charge

    After requiring that both classroom libraries and school libraries have their contents vetted by trained media specialists, Florida delayed publishing the training for six months; amid uncertainty two school districts have told teachers to cover up their books. 

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    1/30/2023

    What's Actually Happening in Florida Education?

    by Francie Diep and Emma Pettit

    Ron DeSantis has moved quickly on multiple fronts to alter the landscape of higher education in Florida. What are the facts behind the headlines? Will these actions be repeated in other states?

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/31/2023

    What's Behind DeSantis Push to Erase Black History?

    by Janai Nelson

    "Mr. DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE” law relegates the study of the experiences of Black people to a prohibited category. The canceling of any students’ access to accurate, truthful education that reflects their diverse identities and that of their country should chill every American."