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The Florida State Board of Education established regulations this week to restrict the Florida College System’s (FCS) use of state or federal funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
The rule bans FCS’s 28 schools from using such funds for programs “that categorize individuals based on race or sex for the purpose of differential or preferential treatment,”
The board replaced the course “Principles of Sociology” with an American history general education core course, allegedly to counteract “radical woke ideologies.”
The American Sociological Association responded to the move with outrage and concern, claiming that the board’s belief about the “woke” nature of sociology was incorrect. It urged the state board to change its mind.
“Sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior,” the ASA said in a statement. “Sociologists bring expert knowledge and understanding to addressing challenging social problems that have broad public implications, including housing, poverty, health, crime, work, and education.
“Failure to expose students to the scientific study of the range of issues faced by American citizens would be a failure of civics education.”
These changes come amid national and organized efforts from the political right to hinder DEI, critical race theory, and other progressive ideas and viewpoints in education.Â