BY JENNIFER RUTH

Three recent pieces are worth reading for insight into Florida HB 999: “DeSantis Higher Ed Bill Heads for the Legislature” (Inside Higher Ed), “New Bill Latest Assault in Florida’s War on Education” (Forbes), and “Never Seen Anything Like it: New Bill Would Write DeSantis’s Higher Ed Vision into Law” (Chronicle of Higher Education). In the last piece, AAUP President Irene Mulvey is quoted, saying, ““This bill will be a gut punch to anyone who cares about public education in a democracy or academic freedom or the fact that our system of higher education is the envy of the world.”

For insight into whose playbook DeSantis is following, read this piece from April 2021 about Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orban, “Orban extends dominance through Hungarian university reform.” “Hungary’s parliament passed legislation on Tuesday setting up foundations to take over the running of universities and cultural institutions in a move critics say extends the ideological imprint of the ruling right-wing government,” the piece reads.

Mulvey, Randi Weingarten of AFT, and Chris Finan of the National Coalition Against Censorship together released a statement today and a call for people to add their names to the statement.

With the introduction of House Bill 999 last week, the Florida Legislature—at Gov. Ron DeSantis’ urging—has doubled down on its attacks on academic freedom with a bill that would effectively silence faculty and students across the ideological spectrum and purge whole fields of study from public universities.

The bill would place control of core curriculums and institutional mission statements entirely in the hands of political appointees. It would limit or ban students’ ability to pursue certain majors or areas of study. It forbids “theoretical or exploratory” content in general education courses. Simply put, it would transform Florida’s colleges and universities into an arm of the DeSantis political operation.

We can’t let this happen on our watch—in Florida or in any state. The AAUP, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Coalition against Censorship have issued a joint statement on this, which you can see and share here.

Please add your name to this statement and commit to fight legislative efforts like these. We’ll be in touch with more actions you can take as our campaign builds.

In unity,
Irene Mulvey, AAUP President
Randi Weingarten, AFT President