Florida House Committee Advances Bill Banning Some Race and Gender Studies in Higher Ed

Students at the University of Florida study at the Smathers Library West in Gainesville, Fla., on Feb. 20, 2023. (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times)

A new Florida bill that would remove programs on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from colleges and universities across the state advanced in a state House committee on March 13.

House Bill 999, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Alex Andrade, was approved along a 12–5 party-line vote by the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Subcommittee.

Under the bill (pdf), colleges and universities would be banned from using state or federal money to fund “any programs or campus activities that espouse diversity, equity, or inclusion or Critical Race Theory rhetoric.”

The bill bans courses “based on unproven, theoretical, or exploratory content,” including those on gender studies.

It also requires the Board of Governors to periodically review the mission of each university and provide updates or revisions to that mission, if needed, to ensure their curriculum aligns with the goal of providing a curriculum that promotes education for “citizenship of the constitutional republic” and the state’s “existing and emerging workforce needs.”

The bill states that state universities should “model civic discourse that recognized the importance of viewpoint diversity, intellectual rigor, and an evidence-based approach to history.”

Critical Race Theory

Additionally, the bill would also ban state universities from using diversity, equity, and inclusion statements, critical race theory rhetoric, or “other forms of political identity filters” as part of its hiring process, including in employment applications, promotions, or as conditions of employment.

Critical race theory (CRT) is a neo-Marxist ideology that redefines human history as a struggle between the “oppressors”—typically considered to be white people—and the “oppressed”—other identity groups.

The theory has slowly expanded in recent decades through academia, government structures, school systems, and more notably, the corporate world.

The newly-advanced bill does not explicitly define critical race theory rhetoric.

If passed, House Bill 999 would go into effect July 1, 2023.

Speaking before the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Subcommittee, Andrade said he believes universities in the state should focus on “teaching students how to think, not what to think.”

“Radical feminist theory, what I can tell you right now, is that it is not women’s studies. Radical gender theory is not simply gender studies. When you apply those modifiers to the programs, what you’re talking about is a system meant to direct and promote certain activism to achieve a specific viewpoint,” Andrade said.

While advocates of the bill argue it is needed to ensure universities are not pushing “woke” education agendas in an increasingly politically divisive climate, multiple students, law organizations, parents, and teachers have opposed the bill.

Concerns Over Bill

Rich Templin, the director of politics and public policy of the Florida AFL-CIO, told lawmakers that he is concerned about the impact the bill could have on both students and the state as a whole.

“What you are doing here is taking a first-rate, one of the No. 1 in the nation higher education systems, and you are trashing it,” he said. “With the passage of this bill, you will lose the best and brightest faculty, you won’t attract any new faculty, you won’t attract any graduate students, you will lose a billion dollars in research education money.”

Democrat Rep. Yvonne Hinson from Gainesville questioned the constitutionality of the bill.

“The Fifth Amendment has an explicit requirement that the federal government not deprive individuals of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law, an implicit guarantee that each person receives equal protection of the laws,” Hinson said. “Every state is supposed to protect its citizens under the equal protection law clause. This bill violates that law.”

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has not yet signaled if he would sign the bill if passed by the state Legislature.

However, prior to its passing in the House Committee on Monday, DeSantis held a roundtable discussion about DEI initiatives and CRT and the impact those concepts have on the state’s higher education institutions and the students that attend them.

“In Florida, we are not going to back down to the woke mob, and we will expose the scams they are trying to push onto students across the country,” DeSantis said during the discussion, which was live-streamed. “Florida students will receive an education, not a political indoctrination.”