Washington (AFP) - Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a hotly-contested bill Monday dismantling efforts at colleges and universities to promote equality on campus as he burnishes his right-wing credentials ahead of an expected presidential bid.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs aim to increase the share of students from historically marginalized communities but Republicans equate them with "wokeness," complaining that they threaten free speech and foster division.
The wide-ranging legislation prohibits Florida's public higher education institutions from spending state or federal cash on DEI, and eliminates compulsory courses teaching critical race theory or gender theories.
"If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is better viewed as standing for 'discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,'" DeSantis told a news conference.
"And that has no place in our public institutions.This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida."
DeSantis has become a darling of conservatives for his embrace of an "anti-woke" agenda that has fueled his meteoric rise within the Republican Party.
He has spent his four years in office offering red meat to his party's base and appears to be planning to run to Donald Trump's right on a number of issues, from welfare cuts to abortion access.
But he is attempting to sell Republicans a version of Trumpism without the chaos that engulfed the White House of the twice-impeached former president, who is the frontrunner by far in the Republican race for 2024.
DeSantis held the signing at New College of Florida, a public liberal arts school in Sarasota where he replaced seven trustees to give the board a conservative majority that quickly scrapped its own DEI office.
Education campaigners and free speech activists have complained that outlawing DEI amounts to state-backed censorship that undermines academic freedom.
"Some of these niche subjects like critical race theory, other types of DEI-infused courses and majors: Florida is getting out of that game," said a defiant DeSantis, who is expected to announce his White House bid in the coming days.
"If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley.Go to some of these other places."
