The Florida legislature has just passed a bill that will change the face of public universities across the state and, ultimately, the nation. In an era when frighteningly large numbers of students support shout-downs — and prove it, in practice, all too often — this proposal, H.B. 931, sponsored by State Representative Spencer Roach, the senate version of which was sponsored by State Senator Keith Perry, requires universities to put on debates around our foremost public-policy controversies.
Instead of silencing opposing views on issues like transgenderism, immigration, abortion, crime, the Green New Deal, critical race theory, reparations, inflation, China, and the government’s role in health care, universities will now be required to put on debates and panels to which both conservative and progressive speakers are invited to battle things out. Universities can choose the debate topics, but those topics will have to cover the country’s most widely discussed public-policy controversies. Students will get used to hearing from conservatives, as well as from progressives. In the process, they will learn about the substance of our disagreements, while also coming to appreciate the value of respectful debate.
On top of that, this bill will bar the use of “diversity statements,” the de facto political-loyalty oaths academics are increasingly forced to submit if they want a job or promotion. DEI statements have become the instruments of a large-scale ideological purge in academia — culling all faculty but the woke. Pending Governor DeSantis’s signature on this bill, forcing a candidate to prove his devotion to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in order to get an academic job will henceforth be forbidden in Florida.
Florida H.B. 931 was inspired by two pieces of model legislation, one of which I authored and published via the National Association of Scholars, and another of which I co-authored, and published collaboratively with Arizona’s Goldwater Institute and North Carolina’s James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. Each model was first announced and defended here at NRO.
While national attention has rightly been focused on Governor DeSantis’s bold and innovative higher-education bill, H.B. 999 (which I’ve written about here, here, and here), the huge potential of H.B. 931 to change the nature of our public-university campuses has been overlooked. Very few campuses nowadays host debates on our big public-policy controversies. And too often, of course, classroom teaching is one-sided. Many students now consider the very idea of debating issues like transgenderism, global warming, critical race theory, and abortion to be illegitimate. Imagine the impact of regular public exchanges on these issues on our college campuses.
Florida’s house passed H.B. 931 along party lines. In contrast, Florida’s senate passed it with support from half of the chamber’s twelve Democrats. That bipartisan backing bodes well for the spread of this idea to other states. It’s tough to oppose a bill that simply provides for debating our most widely discussed public-policy controversies.
The argument floated by the bill’s opponents was remarkably weak. Critics raised the specter of debaters making the case for slavery and the Holocaust. That is ridiculous. First, the bill says that the debates must treat “the most widely discussed public policy issues of the day.” As a rough rule of thumb, if you don’t see opinion pieces backing opposite sides of some public-policy controversy at venues like the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Review, and the Washington Examiner — or talking heads debating an issue at CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC — then it isn’t “widely discussed.” I haven’t seen op-eds endorsing slavery or the Holocaust at any of those venues. Second, the debate topics are to be chosen by the universities themselves. No university is about to propose a debate on the upside of slavery or the Holocaust.
The real danger, of course, is that universities will avoid controversial topics altogether, or will choose two progressives to debate only very slightly divergent positions, rather than juxtaposing a progressive and a conservative. That kind of evasion won’t be easy, however. For one thing, by law, every event will be videotaped and mounted on the internet. There will also be a detailed list of all events and speakers. If universities evade the spirit or letter of the law, that will quickly become evident. At that point, the legislature has the option of reducing funding requested by the university at the next annual round of appropriations.
We can also expect the newly established Hamilton Center at the University of Florida and the New College of Florida, with its new leadership, to take full advantage of this law by organizing exciting debates and panel discussions featuring well-known advocates on both sides of our biggest policy controversies. That will be an ideal way to showcase the changes DeSantis has ushered in at Florida’s universities. Every so often, a video of those debates and panel discussions might go viral, helping to spread this idea to other states. When other legislatures catch on (likely sooner rather than later), Florida and DeSantis will get credit.
Politically, this reform will be greatly to DeSantis’s benefit, should he choose to run for president. Sponsoring debates on hot-button issues at our monocultural campuses will appeal to conservative culture warriors and moderates alike. This is, simultaneously, a major blow in our cultural battles, and a constructive institutional achievement. It proves that DeSantis can both fight and govern.
The ban on DEI statements is a major step forward as well. There are various strategies being tried across several states for barring diversity statements. Each will face resistance from universities seeking to evade the intent of the law. Florida H.B. 999 attempts to bar diversity statements using somewhat different language than H.B. 931. In my view, the two bills are not only compatible but, in combination, will make it particularly difficult for universities to evade legislative intent by restoring diversity statements in some disguised form.
Should it receive Governor DeSantis’s signature, H.B. 931 will mark an important step forward for Florida and, ultimately, the nation. Florida is about to set the standard when it comes to university campuses hearing both sides of our big public-policy controversies. This is a way to win the culture war with fair, constructive, and innovative policy, fully consistent with America’s principles of free speech, free thought, and liberal education. As on other issues, Florida is the proving ground. I expect this idea to move from Florida to other states. Rightly, DeSantis will get credit for yet another striking innovation.