Florida is at the forefront of an assault against public education, restricting the subjects students can study from K-12 to the colleges and universities. In 2023, the Florida legislature passed SB 266 and Governor DeSantis signed it into law. One of the provisions in this law attacks General Education introductory courses and grants the Board of Governors the authority to remove courses they find to be “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.” The Board of Governors alone gets to determine what is to be considered appropriate content despite the years of faculty expertise, administrative review, and student feedback that have gone into building and managing Florida’s university curriculum.

Educators from all of Florida’s public colleges and universities are confronting and pushing back against a vast censorship on what Florida’s students have the right to learn. This virtual speak out featured student, faculty, parent and national voices discussing the negative impact such laws have had upon them and higher education in general, along with the need to push back against such bureaucratic and political overreach.