Navigating General Education and Legislative Influence

Public colleges and universities across Florida have scrambled to comply with a new law that supporters see as a bulwark against the liberal indoctrination of students. The law prohibits core general-education courses that teach “identity politics” or those “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.” The law has forced colleges to scrutinize hundreds of courses in their catalogues, pressure testing whether anything they teach runs afoul of this sweeping new regulation of college curricula. Proponents of the law say it’s an overdue corrective to general-education offerings, which have ballooned on campuses across the country. But critics worry that the legislation signals a perilous encroachment on faculty control over curricula, creating political litmus tests for what students are allowed to learn in core courses.

Related Reading:

• The Curricular Cull: Inside a Sweeping Attempt to Regulate Gen Ed in Florida  (The Chronicle)
• Professors Ruined Gen Ed. Florida Is Fixing It. (The Review)
• Florida’s Nakedly Ideological Attack on Gen Ed (The Review) 
• What Is Happening in Florida? (The Chronicle) 

Guest: Emma Pettit, senior reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.