Educators Outraged as Florida Cuts Sociology as a Core Higher Ed Course

Despite opposition by sociologists and educators, the State University System of Florida on Wednesday cut sociology from core course requirements, continuing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' assault on academic freedom, intellectual pursuit, and knowledge.

The system's Board of Governors, which is full of DeSantis appointees and oversees a dozen public universities, approved replacing Principles of Sociology with a U.S. history course. It followed the State Board of Education's vote last week to do the same for 28 Florida colleges.

While the university system's chancellor, Ray Rodrigues, said he was "proud" of the decision, sociology educators and groups across the country sharply condemned both boards' moves as right-wing attacks on Florida's higher education, just one aspect of what DeSantis has termed his "war on woke."

Echoing its comments last week, the American Sociological Association (ASA) said that it was "outraged" by Wednesday's vote and urged the university board to reverse course.

"This decision seems to be coming not from an informed perspective, but rather from a gross misunderstanding of sociology as an illegitimate discipline driven by 'radical' and 'woke' ideology."

"There was no evidentiary basis for making this decision. In fact, the board rejected a proposal from one of the governors to table the vote while relevant data could be gathered," the ASA continued. "This decision seems to be coming not from an informed perspective, but rather from a gross misunderstanding of sociology as an illegitimate discipline driven by 'radical' and 'woke' ideology."

"To the contrary, sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the core of civic literacy and are essential to a broad range of careers," the association added. "Failure to prioritize the scientific study of the causes and consequences of human behavior is a failure of Florida's commitment to providing high-quality civics education and workforce readiness."

While efforts to "Save Sociology" in Florida have been mounting since November, some in the field have fueled the attacks. For example, Jukka Savolainen, a sociology professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, wrote for The Wall Street Journal last month that "I have watched my discipline morph from a scientific study of social reality into academic advocacy for left-wing causes."

Following the Wednesday vote, Heather Gautney, a sociology professor at Fordham University in New York City, told Common Dreams, "It's not surprising that people in power would actively suppress efforts to question their power and expose the dynamics underlying it."

"What's surprising is the ease through which that suppression is happening today, apparently with the help of sociologists themselves in cities like Detroit," she added, noting that such attacks on the crucial field come at a time when society is "in such dire need of what sociology has to bring—systematic analysis, understanding, and policy solutions."

Teresa M. Hodge, president of United Faculty of Florida, a union representing educators at the system's 12 universities and beyond, similarly said Wednesday that "we are disappointed in this decision... but unfortunately, we are not surprised," given that both boards "have made it abundantly clear that they do not care about the robust education of our students, and instead only care about political games."

After the State Board of Education's unanimous vote, Florida State University sociology professor Anne Barrett warned that such policies "are devastating for sociology in Florida. Enrollments will plummet. The opportunity to recruit majors will almost disappear. Weakened sociology departments are ripe for elimination and, ultimately, faculty layoffs."

"The costs to society are higher still," Barrett wrote in a blog post on the National Education Association website. "Sociology students learn how to use empirical research and logic to assess the accuracy of claims made about the social world. They also gain skills to critique how power is distributed. In short, they are positioned to be engaged citizens, armed with the power to destabilize right-wing policymakers' agendas—and this is the threat these regulations seek to neutralize."

Florida Education Association president Andrew Spar stressed last week that "the removal of sociology courses as a core general education requirement is part of a continued attack on our state's education system. We've seen it in our K-12 programs—first, they banned books, then classroom libraries, and now they are removing dictionaries from shelves because of their content. Then they attacked curriculum for being too 'woke' because it taught the truth about slavery."

Led by DeSantis—who on Sunday dropped out of the 2024 presidential contest—decision-makers in the state have also taken aim at Advanced Placement African American Studies and AP Psychology, and LGBTQ+ people in classrooms. As a White House hopeful, the governor took his right-wing education policies to the national stage, offering a model to other GOP-controlled states and Republicans in Congress.

"By stripping them of their ability to learn about diverse topics from diverse teachers all because some state leaders deem learning too controversial, Florida is taking away precious opportunities for students," said Spar. "We must continue to fight back against measures that seek to put special interests over the needs and outcomes of students."