(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . House Democratic Leader Driskell laments the state’s restrictive higher ed policies [1] ['Mitch Perry', 'More From Author', '- June'] Date: 2023-06-28 On the crippling higher education front in Florida, House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said this week that even when Gov. Ron DeSantis leaves office in 2026, “you’re going to feel the impact of his policies for years to come.” The remarks came at a town hall meeting Tuesday evening at a library in north Hillsborough County, where Driskell expressed concerns with her constituents and the audience began asking questions. A recent graduate from the University of South Florida expressed his concern about the passage of HB 931, which goes into effect July 1. It requires that each university must have an “Office of Public Policy Events” and an appointed director who will “organize, publicize, and stage debates or group forums at the state university. These events must address, from multiple, divergent, and opposing perspectives, an extensive range of public policy issues widely discussed and debated in society at large,” according to language in the new law. That wasn’t the situation in the past. In addition, “a public institution of higher education may not: require or solicit a person to complete a political loyalty test as a condition of employment or admission into, or promotion within, such institution.” “We’re seeing these attacks on higher education and it’s very troubling to me. We should not call it academic freedom when it’s really academic restrictions,” Driskell. Driskell mentioned other higher education bills as well, such as initiatives that ban the state’s public colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. “What they’re basically trying to do is stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said. “They’re trying to stamp out any sort of majors that might relate to gender studies or race studies. I think that there is this theory that colleges are turning out Democrats, that universities are turning out liberals.” Meanwhile, DeSantis has been transforming New College of Florida in Sarasota, a public liberal arts university, into a conservative leaning institution, by sending millions to the school and appointing a group of controversial trustees. Driskell’s House district includes the entire University of South Florida campus, one of the largest public universities in Florida. She says that she’s had conversations, anecdotally, with faculty members there about how the current situation has made it more difficult to recruit professors and professional staff “because they don’t want to come to Florida.” “They take their names out of the running because they say, ‘I won’t be free to do my job in the way that I was professionally trained to do my job.’ And it’s a problem, and honestly, I don’t think it’s going to end there, right? If I’m a company and I’m thinking about where to relocate, or build a new part of my business I want a state that ‘yes, is good for business,’ but that means good for my employees, right?” Driskell also discussed other legislation passed and signed into law in 2023, including a bill that will establish a statewide registry for individuals diagnosed with sickle cell disease and a measure that will implement recommendations from an Abandoned African American Cemetery Task Force. Relating bills that passed with bipartisan support in both chambers, Driskell mentioned a measure that expands Kidcare, the state-sponsored health insurance coverage for children in low-income families. The bill increases the eligibility for families with an annual income of 200% of the national poverty level to 300%, which she said will help an additional 16,000 people in the state who need access to health care. In the waning days of the 2023 legislative session, Driskell became one of the most outspoken critics of a new bill signed into law that bans Chinese nationals from purchasing property near military installations or critical infrastructure. The new law is scheduled to start July 1. The ACLU of Florida and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has filed a lawsuit in coordination with the Chinese American Legal Defense Alliance last month, contending that the new law will codify and expand housing discrimination against people of Asian descent in violation of the U.S. Constitution and Fair Housing Act. “I can tell you that this is national origin discrimination, and we should not do it. And they passed it anyway,” Driskell said, adding, “I do hope and believe that they will prevail in court because it’s very clear, the law is very clear, that we are not discriminating on the basis of gender or race or sexual orientation or national origin. So it is a problem.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/06/28/house-democratic-leader-driskell-laments-the-states-restrictive-higher-ed-policies/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/