This report dates from Dec., 2023. The state of higher education in Florida.
“The American Association of University Professors has released a blistering assessment of higher education in Florida, saying its yearlong “special investigation” revealed a system under assault from Republican leaders determined to limit academic freedom and impose their worldview on the state’s public campuses.
The
report, released Wednesday, cited a string of laws, policy changes and political maneuvers over the last two years, concluding they amounted to an “ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history.” It was based in part on interviews with more than 65 people, including faculty, students, trustees and former university presidents…..
…..The American Association of University Professors has conducted fewer than 10 special investigations since 1915. Three have been within the last three years, and point to a larger trend in higher education, Reichman said.
“There’s always been a strain of anti-intellectualism in American life,” he said. “It comes to the fore at times of backlash and fear — a world some people took for granted is vanishing. They’re frightened by the new multicultural diversity of the country and they lash out.”
Jafar said appealing to community members outside academia about what’s at stake might be more fruitful than arguing the point with lawmakers.
“People are suffering, and I don’t use that word lightly,” she said. “There are days the situation seems far worse and hopeless than others. The response has to come at different levels.”
Report paints a grim picture of a system controlled by politicians. The governor’s office calls it “a hoax.”
www.tampabay.com
This is all, every last bit of it, based on FEAR. A damn shame this is happening in our country. But, not a complete surprise. Not the first time this level of ignorance ascended somewhere in America. The Scopes Monkey trial comes to mind, and as Issac Asimov observed:
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
