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Ron DeSantis



  • Scholars Stage Teach-in on Racism in DeSantis's Back Yard

    Yohuru Williams and the Institute for Common Power, directed by Terry Anne Scott, convened a 24-hour teach-in in St. Petersburg to draw attention to the connections between inclusive history lessons and functioning democracy. 



  • How to Fight Back Against the Right's "Parents' Rights" Moral Panic

    by Jennifer Berkshire

    Parents' fears about losing control over their children have been the raw material for potent politically-motivated moral panics for a century and more. But those panics aren't irresistible, because parents everywhere still value public schools as democratic community institutions.  



  • Trump and DeSantis Two Peas in a White Nationalist Pod

    by Clarence Lusane

    Any Republican candidate will need to lean in to the politics of white Christian nationalism ascendant on the right; Trump has needed the MAGA movement as much as it's needed him. 



  • Ron DeSantis's Book on the Founders has been Disappearing Online. We Found a Copy

    by Gillian Brockell

    Written during his days as a Tea Party Congressman, DeSantis's 2011 book cherry-picks quotes from the Washington and Hamilton to argue that Barack Obama was engaged in an unconstitutional power grab that would have appalled the founders. It also makes bad arguments about the centrality of slavery to the early Republic. 



  • CA's Newsom Demands Info on Florida Textbook Revisions

    “You don’t get to rewrite history in a back room. You don’t get to erase basic facts around segregation, the holocaust, or Rosa Parks’ story. The extremists in Florida and textbook companies that are colluding with them are about to be exposed.”



  • New College Faculty Vote to Censure College's New Trustees

    The censure motion, which was supported by 80% of the faculty, called the new majority of the Board of Trustees negligent in its fiduciary duty to the college because of noncompliance with transparency laws, failure to disclose financial conflicts of interest, and disregard for procedure in reviewing tenure applications. 



  • I'm Headed to Florida to Teach-In Against DeSantis's Education Policies

    by Kellie Carter Jackson

    This May 17 saw a 24-hour teach-in by historians in St. Petersburg, Florida, to protest the restrictions on curriculum, books and ideas pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies. As a historian of abolition, the author stresses that denying people the pen may influence them to pick up the sword. 



  • Florida's Book Banners Face New Opposition—and Their Lawyers

    While there is a groundswell of opposition to book removal policies and other restrictions on educational content, it remains to be seen whether Democratic politicians will commit to defending the importance of public education in a multicultural democracy. 



  • Florida Just Banned Everything I Teach

    by William Horne

    Black historians during the Jim Crow era observed that the history taught in schools justified slavery, segregation, and lynching. A professor thinks that's where Ron DeSantis's vision of history is headed. Some politicians may think curriculum is a winning issue, but students and society will lose. 



  • Florida Rejects Social Studies Topics on Communism, "Taking a Knee"

    by Valerie Strauss

    After rejecting more than 80 percent of proposed materials for K-12 social studies courses, Florida accepted many revised materials but still rejected 35 percent. Topics refused? Social justice in the Hebrew Bible, national anthem protests, and prosperous countries with socialist economies. 



  • Florida Senate Rejects DeSantis Pick for New College Trustee Board

    Eddie Speir, whose prior experience in education was running a private K-12 religious school, was rejected by the Florida Senate after having participated in board meetings at the New College of Florida as an interim Trustee. What distinguishes Speir from Governor Ron DeSantis's other appointees? 


  • Let Us Now Praise R. DeSantis

    by Marc Stein

    "I can’t believe it’s taken this long to have a political leader take a stand against gender and sexuality!"



  • Inside the New New College

    by Michelle Goldberg

    Hopes that the incoming regime at the New College of Florida would tread lightly on the school's unique culture were dashed by administrative moves to recruit student athletes, establish fraternities and sororities, and deny tenure to the faculty members who sought it this year. 



  • Florida's College Presidents Should Speak Up or Quit

    by Robert Birnbaum

    A former top executive at a public university says that few circumstances justify college presidents breaking silence on public policy. One is when politicians interfere with the work of professionals when it comes to the content of research and teaching. If Florida's public college presidents can't speak out, they should resign. 



  • DeSantis's Real Campus Attack is on Labor

    by Dan Royles

    "I’m exhausted because I teach U.S. history, including African American and LGBTQ+ history, at a public university in Florida." This places the author at the intersection of DeSantis's public attacks on verboten ideas and his quieter steps to gut tenure protections for the state's faculty and union representation for all educators in Florida.