PALM BEACH, FL — Conservatives often complain to no avail about liberal indoctrination on college campuses, so it’s nice to see the state adopt positive changes to finally ease that prejudice.
Florida is that state today, and I hope other states across the country will follow suit.
I used to be comforted to listen to during a Monday panel discussion with Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida education leaders, including Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, how Sunshine State is reforming public education as dreamed by Dr. Martin Luther King.
They concentrate on perfection, not racial and gender divisions.
Particularly, we analyzed a flood of “diversity, equality, and inclusion” initiatives on campuses, including not less than $34 million in DEI at Florida’s 12 state universities alone.
![Governor Ron De Santis](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000005623644.jpg?w=1024)
DEI is growing like mushrooms across the country, though college costs for college students have increased nearly five times the speed of inflation since 1970.
Panelist Christopher Rufo shared his latest series of investigative reporting on the topic left-wing ideological takeover at 4 public universities in Florida.
Preaching noble tolerance and inclusion, DEI’s fringe initiatives seek to interchange academic achievement with a system of racial discrimination – a transparent violation of federal civil rights.
![Christopher Rufa](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000005740013.jpg?w=1024)
Rufo reported how Florida State University distributes students in response to an “oppression matrix” and deliberately prohibits white students — and only white students — from applying for certain scholarships.
Florida International University denigrates America as a “white supremacist” nation and encourages and equips students to interact in violent leftist protests.
The University of South Florida recommends students take part in racial segregation counseling programs and includes “compensation”, “prison abolition”, and “Defending the Police”.
![at the University of South Florida in Tampa](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008311245.jpg?w=1024)
The University of Central Florida denounces the USA as a “white supremacist culture” and promotes proactive discrimination against the “oppressive” class, defined as “male, white, heterosexual, financially stable, middle-aged, able-bodied, Christian. “
DeSantis appointed Rufo and five others – including Debra Jenks, one other panellist – as trustees at Latest College of Florida in January. They’re reforming Latest College, a taxpayer-subsidized public liberal arts farm with ahistorical, racist educational abuses.
Predictably, nonetheless, the liberal media howled even The Latest Yorker noted that Latest College is failing, with 20% of scholars dropping out before the tip of their freshman yr, one-third not being employed or not graduating a yr after graduation, and people employed only earning a median of $32,000, which is low for faculty graduates.
The Latest College faculty would relatively train Marxist activists than productive staff. Florida is attempting to put an end to that.
DeSantis noted that he supports House Bill 999, heard Monday within the Florida House, and Senate Bill 266, heard Wednesday within the Senate.
These proposals would prohibit a state college or university from funding DEI and other identity policy programs and activities. They’d also prohibit soliciting guarantees or commitments to DEI, Critical Race Theory or everyone political beliefs as a condition of employment, promotion or admission.
States across the country should follow suit against these ideological litmus tests that will have started off with good intentions but have morphed right into a racist, repressive orthodoxy.
At its most toxic, DEI is a shallow, reactionary patch applied to the deep cultural rot and resulting progressive policies which have weakened our country since its acceleration within the Sixties.
I really useful a book called “Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Are Keeping Blacks From Success” by Jason Riley of The Wall Street Journal, an incredible black journalist.
It shows the ability of black families in America before progressives introduced mass cultural pathologies within the Sixties.
White liberal hippies have normalized drug culture, decimating our society, especially our young black men.
The white liberal Hollywood culture of “free love” normalized sexual promiscuity, leading to broken families and men abandoning single moms.
![Florida Governor Ron DeSantis](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008020639.jpg?w=1024)
These negative tendencies went further under the socialism of Lyndon B. Johnson’s mass welfare “Great Society” programs that destroyed the black family.
Prior to the large LBJ experiments on a black family, roughly 75% of black children were born into two-parent households.
Nearly 60 years and $25 trillion later, we’ve got the other: about 25% of black children are born to two-parent households.
Harvard economist Raj Chetty and others show that single parenthood is a key variable for youngsters trapped in violence and poverty.
This is not a condemnation of single moms or people on welfare. My parents were on advantages.
It is a condemnation of a culture that creates a everlasting underclass. The structure of those programs makes them an internet of traps as an alternative of a springboard to a greater future.
DEI in its toxic form contributes to this trap network. It locks people right into a mindset based on accusations, victimhood, and constant regret.
Thanks, Florida, for finally taking steps towards reform. Let’s hope other states follow suit.
Carrie Sheffield is a senior political analyst at Independent Women’s Voice and the Tony Blankley Fellow for American Exceptionalism at The Steamboat Institute.