Florida 
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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SOURCE: Independent
2/1/2023
I'm a Florida Teacher. This is What's Happened to My Classroom Library
"We have been told that this is a temporary move as the district works toward compliance with this law, but with only one person to vet thousands of books, it doesn’t feel very temporary."
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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.
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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.
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SOURCE: African American Studies Faculty in Higher Ed
1/31/2023
600 African American Studies Faculty Sign Open Letter in Defense of AP African American Studies
"We categorically reject DeSantis’s autocratic claim to knowing what college-level material should be available in an AP African American Studies course. There is no precedent, of which we are aware, for him or the Florida Department of Education to claim expertise on any other subject matter for AP course adoption."
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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."
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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.
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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.
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SOURCE: WAMU
2/1/2023
Historians on DeSantis and the Fight Over Black History
Experts including education historians Adam Laats and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela discuss the controversy over Florida's rejection of the Advanced Placement course in African American Studies.
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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.
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
1/29/2023
Ron DeSantis Battles the College Board—and History
by Jelani Cobb
"It’s scarcely surprising that a discipline built on an interest in exploring Black humanity would find itself in the crosshairs. That such a thing would happen in Florida is even less so."
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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.
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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?
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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."
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SOURCE: Washington Post
1/29/2023
100 Years After Rosewood, Just One House Remains
The home of John Wright, a white merchant who helped shelter Black residents from mob violence, is all that remains of the former town of Rosewood.
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