THE CHALLENGE OF POLITICIZING FLORIDA STUDENTS
In February, thousands of Florida students skipped school to join anti-ICE protests from Palm Beach County to Sarasota, Duval, and the Panhandle. Hundreds of students from at least four high schools in Palm Beach County left their classes simultaneously at 1 p.m. on Monday, February 16. Thousands of students from two high schools in Pembroke Pines (Pembroke Pines Charter High School and West Broward High School) left their classrooms on Friday, February 13.
Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas of the Florida Department of Education confirmed that students’ freedom of expression does not end at the school gates, as clarified in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Tinker v. Des Moines). However, case law indicates that this freedom must not interfere with instruction and school operations.
Kamoutsas also warned: « We will not tolerate educators encouraging school protests or imposing their political views on students, especially when they denigrate law enforcement. Under Governor Ron DeSantis’ leadership, Florida’s education system is focused on student success, not ideology. «
Florida’s largest teachers’ union, the Florida Education Association (FEA), issued a statement saying it neither supported nor condemned the student protests.
Tensions over the politicization of school and university campuses
A new bill has been introduced by Republican Senator Gayle Harrell (Stuart) and Republican Representative Peggy Gossett-Seidman (Highland Beach) to impose new requirements on students and community members who participate in political activities on campus in order to restrict them.
However, according to Katie Rainwater, professor of sociology at FIU (Florida International University), and Robert Cassanello, professor of history, politics is already very present on Florida campuses in other ways. At Florida State University (FSU), an Institute for Governance and Civics was established by lawmakers with the official goal of becoming one of the nation’s leading public policy institutes.
In practice, according to the two professors, it serves as a vehicle for the legislative priorities of Republican elected officials. It promotes Conscience Liberty, a concept originating from the conservative Christian association Alliance Defending Freedom and the Heritage Foundation. It also promotes Educational Liberty, inspired by the Phoenix Declaration, a text from the Heritage Foundation advocating patriotism and parental responsibility and authority in education.
In South Florida, according to Rainwater and Cassanello, the Institute for Freedom in the Americas (IFA) was established on the campus of Miami-Dade College, as was the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom at Florida International University. Former House Speaker Paul Renner explained that the IFA wanted to develop a generation of young leaders from the center-right.
As for the Adam Smith Center, it organizes the Carvalho Dialogues, an annual event designed by the Heritage Foundation to create a right-wing equivalent to the São Paulo Forum, a gathering of left-wing Latin American political parties and organizations.
It should be noted that there are academic centers committed to progressive values (social justice, civil rights, inequality, the environment, immigration) traditionally associated with the left on Florida campuses. However, there have been no Confucius Institutes (institutes formerly funded by China) in Florida since 2019.
As a reminder, the Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank that is behind Project 2025.
