GOP lawmakers plan to ban more college majors in FL like ethnic studies, ‘radical’ feminist theory

By
March 14, 2023
In Higher Ed, News

Florida State University. Photo: Diane Rado, Florida Phoenix

State has been a frequent model for NC Republicans

Republican lawmakers are proposing to expand legislation that would further limit majors and minors available to Florida university students, which would exacerbate concerns from faculty and other opponents of the bill that has already shaken up higher education in the state.

The legislation also would further undermine tenure protections for professors.

The bill in question is HB 999 and it’s called Public Postsecondary Educational Institutions. Lawmakers will be discussing an updated version at a Monday committee meeting, where they will decide whether to accept or reject new expanded language in the bill.

The American Association of University Professors said that the proposed language would “enact the most draconian restrictions on higher ed in US history. It bans all majors & minors in ANY critical theory & allow unqualified political appointees to call for post-tenure review of any faculty member at any time,” according to a Saturday tweet.

As currently written, HB 999 prompts the Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, to give “direction to each constituent university on removing from its programs any major or minor in Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality, or any derivative major or minor of these belief systems,” according to the legislation.

But lawmakers will consider an expansion to the bill Monday which would direct the Board of Governors to “provide direction to each constituent university to remove from its programs any major or minor that is based on or otherwise utilizes pedagogical methodology associated with Critical Theory, including, but not limited to, Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, Radical Feminist Theory, Radical Gender Theory, Queer Theory, Critical Social Justice, or Intersectionality, as defined in Board of Governors regulation.”

The majors and minors listed in a staff analysis, which is created by the GOP-controlled Legislature, may not reflect what these majors or minors are actually called in other higher education settings. Read more

FL U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz: Some pro-abortion protesters are ‘over-educated, under-loved’ women

By
May 4, 2022
In News

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is photographed inside the Rayburn House Office Building Feb. 27, 2019. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz took to Twitter to discredit women who rallied Tuesday in support of abortion rights as “over-educated” and “under-loved.”

At 6:20 AM Wednesday, he tweeted:

“How many of the women rallying against overturning Roe are over-educated, under-loved millennials who sadly return from protests to a lonely microwave dinner with their cats, and no bumble matches?”

Bumble is a common dating app on smartphones.

Florida women and abortion-rights advocates gathered and protested across the state Tuesday following a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion indicating the justices at the high court will likely overturn a nearly half-century old landmark case of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.

Gaetz is a Republican who represents areas in the most western part of the Florida panhandle, a heavily-red voting district.

The U.S. Representative is currently under federal investigation for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, in connection with former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who has plead guilty to sex trafficking charges of a minor among other charges.

Gaetz was also accused by state Rep. Chris Latvala of creating a point-system game about House members’ sexual conquests within the Florida Capitol, according to the Sun Sentinel in 2020.

Danielle Brown is a reporter for the Florida Phoenix, which first published this report.