A THEORY IS THE ANTITHESIS OF A FAITH TRADITION.

There are college presidents in Florida who appear to be unclear on that concept.

As such, our institutions will not fund or support any institutional practice, policy, or academic requirement that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality, or the idea that systems of oppression should be the primary lens through which teaching and learning are analyzed and/or improved upon. Further, if critical race theory or related concepts are taught as part of an appropriate postsecondary subject’s curriculum, our institutions will only deliver instruction that includes critical race theory as one of several theories and in an objective manner

The notion of "compelling belief" is contrary to the nature of theory, which is at a minimum a framework for organizing observations, and ought generate testable implications that in principle might be found wanting.  Belief is for faith traditions: the Magi are only in Matthew, the shepherds and angels only in Luke, and whosoever believeth shall not perish is not testable in this life.  Critical studies, on the other hand, properly lend themselves to being presented as organizing concepts and subject to empirical investigation.

But for emancipation, how much worse would black life be?  But for voting rights and public accommodation law, how much worse would black life be?  But for school desegregation, how much worse would black life be?  If you want to be provocative, but for urban renewal and the War on Poverty, how much worse would black life be?  Would a peer-reviewed journal publish research that suggested urban renewal or the War on Poverty actually worsened conditions relative to the baseline?

Because the community college presidents are in Florida, though, the role of education as state policy has come into play.  "The news comes on the heels of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seeking information on the amount the state’s public colleges and universities spend on critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion."  Now it might be that, after thirty years of wordnoise dressed up as Theory, or unsubstantiated beliefs given primacy of place in class, a corrective is due.  That prospect, though, has Matt "Dean Dad" Reed worried.

Good teaching—as opposed to a re-education camp—is about exposing students to multiple perspectives and empowering them to reach their own conclusions. Scholars whose work is informed by critical race theory offer certain perspectives; others offer others. Read narrowly, the statement amounts to a carefully phrased defense of free inquiry.

Yes, although after years of the Critical Studies types turning higher education into a re-education camp, does it come as any surprise that a governor championing Normals might arise.  (Now there arose over Florida a Governor who knew not Foucault?)

Carefully parsed splitting of differences may work when negotiating with a good-faith actor. When the other actor isn’t acting in good faith, though, careful parsing won’t save you. If anything, it may come across as appeasement. Had I only read the headline, I would have come away with the impression that the colleges agreed with the governor’s decree to ban impure thoughts.

The actual “compelling” that’s going on is by the state, on the colleges. Colleges know that their funding and licensing may be on the line if they stand on clearly stated principles. The governor has made it clear that he considers politics a zero-sum game of warring camps in which procedural safeguards are optional. AP African American Studies sounds liberal to him, so it’s out. Accreditors might raise an eyebrow at a frontal assault on academic freedom, so he decrees that Florida’s colleges have to switch accreditors every cycle to prevent follow-through. New College sounds liberal, so it’s time to engineer a purge. The pattern is clear and obvious.

In the absence of norms, institutions, and enumerated powers, politics is a zero-sum game of warring camps where anything goes. And the use of public funds to support education, from preschool to particle accelerators, becomes censorship per se. After years of higher education being run by people who have not acted in good faith, Florida coming to this pass comes as no surprise.  Florida state colleges inflicted the DeSantis problem on themselves.