Florida board approves intensive gen ed overhaul
College students at Florida State College can cheer on the Seminoles throughout a number of sports activities, however they’ll now not be taught concerning the namesake tribe of Indigenous Individuals as a part of FSU’s basic schooling choices after the Florida Board of Governors authorised sweeping curriculum modifications Thursday.
Florida schools have spent months rethinking their basic schooling necessities following a change in state regulation. Thursday’s vote marked the ultimate step in a contentious and controversial course of that introduced vital modifications to all 12 state universities. Critics accuse the board and system officers of taking a heavy-handed method and focusing on particular subjects or programs, whereas state officers have argued revisions had been crucial each to simplify the curriculum and to strip it of “indoctrination.”
Now, American Historical past 583: The Seminoles and the Southeastern Indians is certainly one of a whole bunch of programs throughout Florida’s public universities that may now not depend towards basic schooling credit score as a part of the intensive overhaul. Neither will Black Girls in America or LGBTQ Historical past, each of which had been beforehand included as basic schooling choices at FSU. These are simply three of quite a few programs touching ultimately on race, gender or sexuality that institutional boards voted in latest months to drop from basic schooling. All 12 Boards of Trustees then submitted a pared-down listing of lessons to FLBOG for approval. Three Bible programs stay eligible for basic schooling credit score at FSU.
(An FSU spokesperson famous in an e mail to Inside Greater Ed that American Historical past 583, which at the moment has about 150 college students enrolled this semester, will now be provided as an elective. Pressed on the rationale for why the course was dropped from gen eds, FSU didn’t reply.)

Florida State College’s Board of Trustees dropped a course on Seminole historical past from the listing of basic schooling choices, however followers can nonetheless cheer on the Seminoles.
Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire/Getty Picture
State lawmakers required schools in 2023 to evaluate basic schooling lessons in an effort to chop “programs with curriculum primarily based on unproven, speculative or exploratory content material,” in response to supplies shared with the Board of Governors in a presentation for Thursday’s vote.
The Florida Board of Governors unanimously authorised the brand new suite of gen ed lessons Thursday, although some members tried to downplay the notion that the state was attempting to restrict data.
“We’re not prohibiting universities from providing programs,” Timothy Cerio, chair of the Educational and Pupil Affairs committee, stated on the assembly. As an alternative, he emphasised that these programs are simply being faraway from basic schooling curriculum and can stay out there as electives.
State College System of Florida chancellor Ray Rodrigues depicted the vote on basic schooling as stripping indoctrination from curricular choices. Rodrigues argued that the American public has misplaced religion in larger schooling, citing a latest Gallup ballot that famous shrinking public confidence within the sector. Among the many causes for that diminished confidence, notably amongst Republican respondents, is the assumption that faculties push liberal agendas.
“The final schooling curriculum that was authorised immediately makes Florida the one state within the nation to deal with the No. 1 cause why the American individuals have misplaced confidence in larger schooling,” Rodrigues stated throughout the assembly. “We are able to confidently say that our basic schooling programs that college students need to take in an effort to graduate is not going to include indoctrinating ideas.”
‘Political Overreach’
However critics allege directors have overstepped, as curriculum has historically been the college’s purview. In addition they fear that eradicating programs from basic schooling will trigger enrollment in such lessons to plummet, limiting the variety of college students who shall be launched to sure majors like sociology—a self-discipline state officers have taken intention at for an allegedly liberal tilt—which is able to subsequently weaken tutorial departments and doubtlessly lower staffing ranges.
United College of Florida, a union representing 25,000-plus professors, denounced the transfer towards scaled-back basic schooling choices.
“Florida is on the forefront of an assault in opposition to public schooling, limiting the topics college students can examine from Okay-12 to the universities and universities,” UFF declared in a information launch forward of Thursday’s vote, casting FLBOG’s actions as “bureaucratic and political overreach.”
“Basic schooling programs are the inspiration of crucial considering and knowledgeable citizenship, and censoring them limits not solely what college students can be taught but in addition what they’ll change into. These proposed cuts are an insult to our college students and to the world-class school that instruct and information them,” UFF president Teresa M. Hodge stated in a Monday webinar forward of the assembly.
Hodge argued that the programs being focused had been simply “phrases and numbers on a spreadsheet” to the Florida Board of Governors, however “for the remainder of us, they’re the way forward for our college students, our jobs, and our democracy” and the “basis of crucial considering” and “knowledgeable citizenship.” She additionally accused Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who pushed for the laws that led to the modifications, of prioritizing “his private political ambition” over college students.
Robert Cassanello, a historical past professor on the College of Central Florida, argued on the decision that it was lawmakers—not professors—who had been making an attempt to indoctrinate college students.
“They inform us that lessons need to be faraway from the curriculum that concentrate on race, gender and sexuality, however on the similar time, they need programs and classes on the centrality of Western civilization, free-market libertarianism and patriotic histories of this nation infused into the final curriculum and life on our campuses,” Cassanello stated.
College students on the decision additionally famous that basic schooling programs set them on profession pathways.
Tessa Barber, a graduate scholar on the College of South Florida, started faculty as a biology main however is now working towards a doctorate in politics and worldwide relations. She attributed that change to basic schooling programs in anthropology and political science that pushed her in a distinct path. She expressed concern about “political interference” within the schooling of undergraduates.
Some audio system at Thursday’s assembly additionally pushed again on the gen ed overhaul.
Jono Miller, president of NCF Freedom, a gaggle that has been crucial of the state’s conservative takeover of New School of Florida, alleged that the overhaul of its core curriculum was “rushed and chaotic” with “minimal school enter” and a “lack of transparency.” Miller argued that “telling school what to show interprets on to telling college students what to suppose.”
Thursday’s vote adopted prior motion on basic schooling programs from the State Board of Schooling, which oversees the 28 establishments within the Florida School System. Earlier this month that board eliminated 57 p.c of FCS basic schooling programs, in response to state officers.