Academic freedom suffers blow after blow in Florida

In 2023, FIRE raised the following question: What’s going on in Florida? In light of recent affronts to academic freedom in the Sunshine State, we regret to raise this question once again.

Florida State University nixes class on women authors

Michelle Zauner’s mother died from pancreatic cancer in 2014. Zauner, a Grammy-nominated musician who plays in the rock band Japanese Breakfast, reflected on how Korean culture and heritage helped her grieve in her memoir Crying in H-Mart. This book spent 55 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list and was floated for a film adaptation with White Lotus actor Will Sharpe attached to direct. 

Zauner was listed alongside Jane Austen as a potential author of study in a class on contemporary women authors. But before students had a chance to explore how women across generations and backgrounds have contributed to the literary tradition, the Florida Board of Governors pressured FSU to pull the plug on the course.

At the end of the fall 2025 semester, the Board sent an email to FSU faculty reiterating recent regulations:

Courses cannot distort significant historical events, include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, or be based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.

These constraints come from SB 266, which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed in 2023. Among other things, this law specifically prohibits instructors from teaching “that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.” It is unknown whether or how the course violated this provision. 

In summary, the law bans faculty from teaching ideas that the state of Florida has deemed verboten. SB 266 essentially expands Florida’s 2022 Stop WOKE Act, a similarly unconstitutional law that FIRE is challenging in court. We’ve explained to DeSantis that principles of academic freedom protect faculty members’ right to discuss pedagogically related materials, subjects, and viewpoints in courses, and the First Amendment protects faculty from government interference in these matters. 

In since-removed FSU courses, such as the class on contemporary women authors and another course on African diaspora short fiction, discussions of systemic racism and sexism (and, indeed, whether they exist) are undoubtedly germane to the course. 

Florida must refrain from censoring pedagogically relevant course instruction, especially to suppress disfavored ideas or viewpoints. 

Florida government’s hostility to educators raises serious concerns

Self-censorship is also a concern. Consider the culture of shaming that exists within Florida’s education system. Over the past few months alone, Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas issued press releases and statements announcing investigations into specific educators whom he did not hesitate to name publicly. 

In November, he announced proceedings against an instructor for using “Mx.” as a gender-neutral honorific for another person. The month prior, he publicly announced the removal of an instructor at Florida Southwestern State College for “promoting gender ideology.” Again, using their full name. 

Scrutiny of this sort only serves to make faculty fear for their jobs, and when the government invites it, that effectively coerces instructors into censoring themselves. 

The Supreme Court recognized that the First Amendment “does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.” The spring 2026 semester began with this “pall of orthodoxy” over every college classroom in Florida, undermining the promise of academic freedom that is so integral to higher education. 

If you are a faculty member in Florida who is affected by these regulations, please contact FIRE.