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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Gov. DeSaboteur blows up New College

Gov. DeSaboteur blows up New College

by Betty Cracker|  January 6, 20235:10 pm| 120 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity

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The other day in comments, the fallout from Florida Gov. DeSantis’s gleeful vandalism of the state’s public university system came up, and I mentioned that for me, no act of sabotage had been sadder to witness. Florida attracts a lot of sneering, and oftentimes rightly so, but the state’s public university system was no joke. Building a high quality system was the work of generations.

DeSantis himself left the state to get fancy degrees at Harvard and Yale and will probably send his own children north of the Mason-Dixon line to receive an elite education. But most Floridians don’t have that option, and at the rate the governor is vandalizing the system for political gain, a quality public education may no longer be available in Florida for the next generation. The latest:

Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed conservative activist Christopher Rufo and five others to the New College of Florida Board of Trustees in his continuing move to eliminate “political ideology” from public higher education.

With the six new members of the school’s Board of Trustees, the DeSantis admin plans to weed out concepts like diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT). The move comes amid low student enrollment at the New College of Florida and as DeSantis ramps up his second term.

In a statement Friday, DeSantis Communications Director Taryn Fenske said New College has been “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning.”

“Starting today, the ship is turning around,” DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin continued. “New College of Florida, under the Governor’s new appointees, will be refocused on its founding mission of providing a world-class quality education with an exceptional focus on the classics.”

New College is affordable and has a great academic reputation. Soon, it won’t. And Rufo isn’t even the worst appointee, as difficult as that may be to believe:

Rounding out the list is Matthew Spalding, dean of Hillsdale College D.C. campus’ Graduate School of Government. Hillsdale College is a private conservative liberal arts college that the DeSantis administration is referencing as its model for transforming New College.

“It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida’s classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South,” DeSantis Chief of Staff James Uthmeier said in a statement.

Fucking Hillsdale. It’s a Michigan-based private college that was founded by abolitionists, but now it’s a grifty propaganda outfit that monetizes racism, fear and ignorance so it can hoover up public dollars via charter school schemes. Tennessee recently beat back a bid to open a charter school chain within its borders when Hilldale officials’ gross racist remarks and contempt for educators came to light.

I don’t imagine Floridians will rise up like Tennesseans did to oppose the Hillsdale-ification of their schools. A majority of citizens here just don’t seem to give a shit. And even if the citizens of this state wise up and elect someone who cares about public education in 2026, the damage that’s already being done will be immense, it will take years to recover, and we’ll all suffer from the ongoing brain drain.

I’m so disgusted and sad about it, so on that cheery note, I plan to go have a glass of wine on the porch, look at the river for a while and thank my lucky stars that my parents’ generation, my generation and my kiddo’s generation got our public education in Florida before the wrecking crew arrived. Cheers!

Open thread.

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    120Comments

    1. 1.

      japa21

      January 6, 2023 at 5:13 pm

      Have 2, you’ll need it.

      Reply
    2. 2.

      VFX Lurker

      January 6, 2023 at 5:15 pm

      I can’t think of anything useful or meaningful to say. What a sad and terrible loss for Florida.

      Reply
    3. 3.

      Baud

      January 6, 2023 at 5:16 pm

      I’d hate to be one of the alumni.

      Reply
    4. 4.

      Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

      January 6, 2023 at 5:19 pm

      Isn’t this the same Rufo whose anti-CRT, groomer BS that was largely rejected in the midterms?

      Didn’t he and DeathSentence get the memo?

      Reply
    5. 5.

      JML

      January 6, 2023 at 5:22 pm

      Nothing good happens when a board of trustees tries to start meddling in curriculum. It just doesn’t end well. usually the clown show on a board has no idea what it’s doing, or it’s a group of people with a lunatic agenda who think they know what they’re doing and can apply the pain points to get their way.

      It takes decades to build up a school’s reputation and academic quality…and it can get ruined very very rapidly.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      rikyrah

      January 6, 2023 at 5:22 pm

      So sad for Florida

      Reply
    7. 7.

      eclare

      January 6, 2023 at 5:25 pm

      When I was in school at UT in the late eighties, UF was recognized as one of the best, if not the best, in the SEC academically.  Even those of us at UT knew that.

      It is sad what is happening.  Enjoy your view and your wine.

      Reply
    8. 8.

      twbrandt (formerly tom)

      January 6, 2023 at 5:27 pm

      As someone with the misfortune to live in the same state as Hillsdale, all I can say is ugh. It was a good and respected liberal arts college, even if somewhat conservative, back in the day, but was hijacked by a bunch of Randian libertarians and is now a cesspool of crazy.

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      January 6, 2023 at 5:28 pm

      How did this snarling, charmless douchebag go from winning by less than .5% to almost 20?

      Reply
    10. 10.

      Kay

      January 6, 2023 at 5:28 pm

      Rufo – hero of the centrist “antiwoke” warriors and NOT just those on the Right, went to Georgetown and then Harvard. Because of course he did.

      Reply
    11. 11.

      Tom Levenson

      January 6, 2023 at 5:28 pm

      I can guarantee that any good school not in FL with some budget to spare these days is eyeing the Florida system for researchers that can fill needs or advance programs/institutional goals.

      Florida as an economy, and affluent Florida parents (be they ever so conservative) will rely on out of state higher ed to produce ideas, research and applied development to keep the goodies flowing, while providing (expensive) alternatives to the locals for their kids.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      Brachiator

      January 6, 2023 at 5:29 pm

      I also saw something about DeSantis taking over the county or area where Disney World is located. Not sure if this is a new or old story.

      I am at work and can only peak at the Internet and Balloon Juice during breaks and lulls.

      Reply
    13. 13.

      Princess

      January 6, 2023 at 5:30 pm

      Worth noting that Derek Black, the white supremacist who converted to being a decent guy, turned away from his Stormfront past at and because of New College. No wonder they want to destroy it.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Black

      Reply
    14. 14.

      Nukular Biskits

      January 6, 2023 at 5:31 pm

      Well, I should give thanks that my “principled conservative” hypoChristian governor, Tate Reeves, is nowhere near as smart as DeSantis.

      Damning praise indeed.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      Kay

      January 6, 2023 at 5:32 pm

      How stupid do you have to be as an adult liberal not to recognize that joining the Right in attacking “wokeness” would lead to EXACTLY this result? Where they would purge all the liberals?

      These people are too stupid to call themselves “public intellectuals”. They have no common sense or street smarts at all. The most moronic  Right wingers take them for a ride every single time. 

      Reply
    16. 16.

      ian

      January 6, 2023 at 5:35 pm

      I want to leave a dead rotting fish in Rufo’s floorboards. Maybe a second one in the ceiling tiles.

      Reply
    17. 17.

      steve g

      January 6, 2023 at 5:36 pm

       

      Gov. Ron DeSantis has appointed conservative activist Christopher Rufo … to eliminate “political ideology” from public higher education.

      LOL. You can’t really get any more ridiculous than that. Rufo is political ideology personified. I’m sure he has a political take on brushing your teeth in the morning. So sad.

      Reply
    18. 18.

      SiubhanDuinne

      January 6, 2023 at 5:37 pm

      As a proud alumna of USF, I’ve been horrified to watch DeSantis’ deliberate trashing of public higher education in the state. Just maddening and heartbreaking in equal measures.

      Also,

      DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin

      what happened to Pushaw?

      Reply
    19. 19.

      Michael Bersin

      January 6, 2023 at 5:38 pm

      If you like what they’re doing to Florida public K-12  and higher education you’ll just love what’s going on in Missouri.

      Reply
    20. 20.

      Sister Golden Bear

      January 6, 2023 at 5:39 pm

      Rufo is also the one who created and mainstreamed the “groomer” slur against LGB, and especially T, folks.

      Tragic.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      Sister Golden Bear

      January 6, 2023 at 5:41 pm

      @Brachiator: It’s new. DeSantis Again Pushes To Wreck Special Disney District

      Reply
    22. 22.

      SiubhanDuinne

      January 6, 2023 at 5:43 pm

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      How did this snarling, charmless douchebag go from winning by less than .5% to almost 20?

      I wonder this all the time. It terrifies me to think that he could become POTUS. And you just know if he were to win, he’d name Rufo or the Hillsdale guy as his Secretary of Education. Ugh. Doesn’t bear thinking about.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      Mike in NC

      January 6, 2023 at 5:44 pm

      We just got home from Charleston, where my wife had a pre-op consultation with a couple of doctors at the Medical University of South Carolina. First visit to MUSC, which occupies a vast area near the downtown historic district. Like our travels in November to Arlington VA and Washington DC, Charleston was a reminder that we’re too old and out of touch to be hanging out in urban areas with their congested neighborhoods, insane traffic, impossible parking, and general chaos.

      We drove there yesterday and all was smooth sailing until we hit the city limits and ran into gridlock in every direction. Couldn’t connect to the hotel WiFi. Had a nice restaurant recommendation for dinner, but bailed after sitting for 15 minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic on one of the bridges. Ugh.

      Reply
    24. 24.

      Matt McIrvin

      January 6, 2023 at 5:44 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear: I thought they already passed the law to do that, and it was set to expire this summer. Maybe not.

      Disney’s pocket government always seemed like a shady deal in the first place, so I’m not exactly shedding tears for it on the merits, but DeSantis’s motivation is hateful and the precedent/message being established is terrible.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      oklahomo

      January 6, 2023 at 5:45 pm

      @ian: hubcaps work too.

      Reply
    26. 26.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 5:47 pm

      To be honest, despite being a HS student who advises LOTS of HS seniors on college admissions,  I had never really heard of “New College” probably because my teaching career is limited to Texas and the Pacific Northwest.

      Are you talking about New College in Sarasota that Wikipedia says has an enrollment of 650 students which is about 1/4 of the enrollment of the current HS where I am teaching at this moment?  And that Niche rates as a B+ school which puts it about on the same tier as the average directional school?

      We have something that seems similar here in Washington with Evergreen State College which is 4-times larger than New College and declining all on its own without any help from a douchebag Republican governor.

      Or is there some other New College in Florida that I’m missing?

      Reply
    27. 27.

      topclimber

      January 6, 2023 at 5:48 pm

      You can’t educate citizens if you don’t teach about political ide-as/-ology.

      Time to troll back the DeSantis couple. Hopefully Fla Dems have enough spunk to push for inclusion. Surely our GQP is against cancel culture.

      Reply
    28. 28.

      Chief Oshkosh

      January 6, 2023 at 5:50 pm

      @eclare: Yep. I know four UF faculty that left in the last quarter (two early retirements and two to get the fuck outta Dodge and to new digs up north) and DeSantis (and FL politics in general) were deciding factors.

      Reply
    29. 29.

      topclimber

      January 6, 2023 at 5:51 pm

      @Kent: There is always a New College in Florida

      Reply
    30. 30.

      lowtechcyclist

      January 6, 2023 at 5:52 pm

      In a statement Friday, DeSantis Communications Director Taryn Fenske said New College has been “completely captured by a political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning.”

      Jeez, you don’t have to boast about it.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      Sister Golden Bear

      January 6, 2023 at 5:53 pm

      In other reactionary horribleness news:

      Missouri has released 3 new anti trans bills, including one that would define “gender affirming care coersion” as child abuse. Missouri Republicans believe gender affirming therapy from a psychologist is “coersion.”

      An Oklahoma bill would forcibly ban gender affirming care until age 26, making it a felony, which effectively medically detransitioning all trans people under 25. The age is not accidental, it’s when the last of the changes in secondary-sex characteristics wind down, so it’s intended to for trans people to undergo puberty.

      Bills in Oklahoma, South Carolina, and New Hamsphire that ban gender affirming care could literally be life threatening, and not just for suicides. For trans women like me who’ve had bottom surgery, my body produces no hormones whatsoever, so I need estrogren for long-term health.

      Texas released 10 bills targeting the transgender community, defining trans people as doing drag and curtailing their medical treatments and ability to exist in public, and the latest resolution seeks to end all gender affirming care.

      Reply
    32. 32.

      louc

      January 6, 2023 at 5:54 pm

      I dunno. A lot of people in Florida are super proud of New College. In fact, my SIL’s best friend, a Republican businesswoman, graduated from New College and is a vocal alumn. She may fear the inevitable damage to its reputation. New College’s unique aspects have been in place for a very long time. Alumni beat back an effort to merge it with another college and maybe this is revenge by DeSantis for that.

      Then again, I always think “he’s going too far and Floridians are going to get mad” and it never happens.

      Reply
    33. 33.

      Leslie

      January 6, 2023 at 5:54 pm

      How terribly sad. I sure hope the prognosticators are right who say that repugnant man’s appeal won’t translate to a national stage.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      Chief Oshkosh

      January 6, 2023 at 5:54 pm

      @Kent: New College is a big deal in the South. I’d say it’s aspirational, and I don’t mean that in a snarky way.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 5:54 pm

      @eclare: When I was in school at UT in the late eighties, UF was recognized as one of the best, if not the best, in the SEC academically.  Even those of us at UT knew that.

      It is sad what is happening…

      I assume you mean AFTER Vanderbilt.

      Florida is probably still is one of the best SEC schools academically.  I mean look at the competition.  After Georgia, what is left?  Maybe A&M?  It is frankly embarrassing compared to the Big-10 or Pac-12.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      Kristine

      January 6, 2023 at 5:56 pm

      @SiubhanDuinne: I feel badly about USF too. It was a commuter campus when I attended ’76-’81, but its research reputation grew and grew over the years especially in medicine and gerontology/geriatrics. Now that’s likely all going to wind up in the dumpster.

      Reply
    37. 37.

      Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

      January 6, 2023 at 5:57 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:

      Why are they still doing this extreme shit? Have they learned nothing from the 2022 midterms?

      Reply
    38. 38.

      Sister Golden Bear

      January 6, 2023 at 5:58 pm

      @Matt McIrvin: Apparently he backed down previously.

      Totally about the Mouse’s pocket government being shady, but it is concerning that homeowners in the area would be hit with massive tax increases if DeSantis succeeds (although I don’t remember the details).

      Reply
    39. 39.

      VOR

      January 6, 2023 at 5:59 pm

      @Tom Levenson: Agree. Several years ago Wisconsin Governor (and 2016 presidential candidate) Scott Walker (R) was cutting budgets at the University of Wisconsin. A tenured professor in the highly-rated Computer Science department left for Minnesota and brought his team with him. At that time, the University of Minnesota was lower rated in that area but the budgets were more promising.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Sister Golden Bear

      January 6, 2023 at 6:01 pm

      @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Because 1) they’re genuine haters, 2) they’re in blood red districts — often due to gerrymandering — and want to throw more red meat to the base, who are also genuine haters.

      Reply
    41. 41.

      Andrew Abshier

      January 6, 2023 at 6:01 pm

      @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  The midterms were very, very good for Republicans in Florida, so they learned nothing other than  they are becoming more powerful here.

      I live in Sarasota and New College was unique and very cool.  We are going to lose that, and we’re going to lose our A-rated public school system because of the Republican takeover of the school board.  It’s just sickening, but it’s because so many have moved here, and they are overwhelmingly Republican voters.

      Reply
    42. 42.

      Viva BrisVegas

      January 6, 2023 at 6:02 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:

      I don’t understand any of this. DeSantis is using the power of the state to take punitive action against Disney because of speech that Disney has expressed.

      Wouldn’t Disney have a case against Florida based on corporate personhood, due process and the First Amendment?

      Reply
    43. 43.

      Sure Lurkalot

      January 6, 2023 at 6:03 pm

      Why it’s almost as if these asshats are afraid of knowledge itself!

      Reply
    44. 44.

      schrodingers_cat

      January 6, 2023 at 6:05 pm

      Why has Florida gone from purple to blood red? Any guesses?

      Reply
    45. 45.

      NotMax

      January 6, 2023 at 6:08 pm

      Back when yours truly was a lad, New College was known as a hippy dippy school, no place to seek a regimen of significant edumacatin’.

      Reply
    46. 46.

      mrmoshpotato

      January 6, 2023 at 6:09 pm

      @Sure Lurkalot: Nominated!

      Reply
    47. 47.

      Dan B

      January 6, 2023 at 6:11 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:  And Matt Schlapp just got exposed for aggressively groping a male Herschel Walker staffer.  Their “grooming” is projection that openly LGBTQ people do because it’s what they do.  Schlapp and his wife are, of course, rabidly anti-LGBTQ.  They’re some hate spewing creeps.  Their tone of voice is venom filled.

      Reply
    48. 48.

      WereBear

      January 6, 2023 at 6:11 pm

      @schrodingers_cat: Retiree flow shifted from Northeast to Midwest.

      Reply
    49. 49.

      eclare

      January 6, 2023 at 6:11 pm

      @Kent:   Vandy is very good, when I was at UT I dated a guy there, but for the diversity of majors and amount of resources, UF was on top.

      A&M?  Definitely never heard that one.  And I think you can get a good education at any SEC school.  Just easier to follow that path at some than others.

      Reply
    50. 50.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 6:12 pm

      @schrodingers_cat:

      1. Gerrymandering makes the political disparity larger than it should be, just like in Wisconsin.

      2. Massive influx of old white retirees

      3.  Lots of right-wing immigrants from Latin America.  The Hispanic immigrants to Florida who come by air are a much more right-wing and wealthier bunch from places like Cuba and Venezuela than those who tend to cross the border in Texas, Arizona, and California, mostly from Mexico and Central America.

      Reply
    51. 51.

      Sister Golden Bear

      January 6, 2023 at 6:13 pm

      @Dan B: With Republicans, every accusation is a confession. Always.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      Another Scott

      January 6, 2023 at 6:13 pm

      Sorry Betty.  :⁠-⁠(

      The good people will have to vote the monsters out for things to get better.

      In other news, it looks like Post.news is now demanding that people sign up to read a feed.  Oh well, it looks like I won’t be reading Popehat and Cheryl Rofer there any more – I don’t see the need to commit to these new “social media” sites yet – not without seeing how they actually behave over time…

      It’s probably a good thing for me – one less time sink.

      Cheers,
      Scott.

      Reply
    53. 53.

      eclare

      January 6, 2023 at 6:13 pm

      @Dan B:   You can bet money on it it is such a sure thing.

      Reply
    54. 54.

      louc

      January 6, 2023 at 6:13 pm

      @Kent: It’s considered a jewel of progressive education. It has a pass/fail policy instead of grades and individualized curriculum, hence the small size. It’s been that way for at least 60 years.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      Matt McIrvin

      January 6, 2023 at 6:14 pm

      @Viva BrisVegas: Probably. But I suspect it’s actually not that big a deal for them if the Reedy Creek Improvement District gets dissolved–it gives them a degree of control that they like but it also costs them money. They may just live with it. It existed because Walt Disney wanted to build an experimental city of the future with himself as King, and they’re not that ambitious these days.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 6:15 pm

      @eclare: A&M is often in top-25 or top-50 lists of public schools in the US.  They have an ENORMOUS amount of oil money.  The oil-money endowment is something like $18 billion which is larger than Michigan and second only to UT for public universities nationwide.  A&M has a bigger endowment than the entire University of California system statewide

      Reply
    57. 57.

      Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

      January 6, 2023 at 6:18 pm

      @Kent:

      Probably a dumb question as I’m sure they’re educated, but do these right-wing Latin American immigrants know about the United States’ progressive New Deal and unionist past/general social democracy and understand the difference between it and literal communism in Cuba or the kind of socialism in Venezuela?

      I mean I’m sure they don’t see themselves as ruining this country by voting GOP, right?

      Reply
    58. 58.

      eclare

      January 6, 2023 at 6:23 pm

      @Kent:   Thanks!  Did not know that.  I always thought of UT-Austin as the premier public university of Texas.

      I did not realize A&M was so close behind.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 6:23 pm

      @louc: @Kent: It’s considered a jewel of progressive education. It has a pass/fail policy instead of grades and individualized curriculum, hence the small size. It’s been that way for at least 60 years

      I don’t mean to be a dick about this.  And I think what DeSantis is doing is atrocious.  But I have to ask what kind of a jewel of progressive education is it if it only educates about 150 people/year in a state of 21 million people.  The majority of whom are probably affluent white kids. How many Black kids attend there?

      In my mind, part of progressive education is actually educating people.  That isn’t even rounding error for a state that size.

      Reply
    60. 60.

      Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

      January 6, 2023 at 6:24 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:

      I’m so sorry about all of it : (

      @Andrew Abshier:

      Sorry about the local Republicans on the school board. Maybe they can be ousted?

      Reply
    61. 61.

      Omnes Omnibus

      January 6, 2023 at 6:26 pm

      @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No, they don’t see the distinction.

      Reply
    62. 62.

      eclare

      January 6, 2023 at 6:28 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:   That is so horrible and must be overwhelming.  Words fail.

      Reply
    63. 63.

      Betty Cracker

      January 6, 2023 at 6:29 pm

      @Kent: You are being a dick about it.

      Reply
    64. 64.

      Viva BrisVegas

      January 6, 2023 at 6:30 pm

      @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

      Generally speaking these are the class of people in South and Central America who are OK with death squads taking out any troublesome peasantry. They would have no problems with the current Republican Party, except that it may be too soft.

      Reply
    65. 65.

      kindness

      January 6, 2023 at 6:31 pm

      With all due respect to our Florida peeps here, what Republicans and DeSantis are doing there is recreating the Confederacy in the state.  You’ve been warned.  They told you exactly what they intend to do.  Get out while you still can.  Please.

      Reply
    66. 66.

      Omnes Omnibus

      January 6, 2023 at 6:32 pm

      @Kent: If you don’t mean to be a dick, then don’t be one.  Small schools can be valuable and innovative.  But you know that coming from Reed.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      zhena gogolia

      January 6, 2023 at 6:34 pm

      I know a really good person who teaches there. This is tragic.

      Fucker went to Harvard and Yale. Fucker.

      Reply
    68. 68.

      trnc

      January 6, 2023 at 6:36 pm

      @SiubhanDuinne: She quit as press sec to work on his campaign. No idea what she’s doing now.

      Reply
    69. 69.

      Dan B

      January 6, 2023 at 6:37 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:  The drumbeat of attacks on trans people and drag queens is awful.  The Christianists don’t do math.  They fail to see that the number of child molesters among pastors is in the thousands while the number of molesters among trans and drag queens is likely 1.  They believe Christpher Rufo but not the ugly truth of their ministers.  They’d rather hurt people who have done them no harm, especially  children, than look at the true depraved criminals.

      Reply
    70. 70.

      Elizabelle

      January 6, 2023 at 6:40 pm

      I’m so sorry, Betty and Sunshine State peeps.

      It would be painful if this were happening in Virginia.  We are (rightfully) proud of our state schools, too.

      I don’t think DeSantis is going to have national appeal.  He is for the greedy mouthbreathers and for the dumb; they are not a plurality, and may the Electoral College not screw us over again.

      I do think that states that don’t have income tax attract a repellent type of electorate.  We see that happening in Florida. South Dakota is famous for that, too.  Although:  South Dakota winters, prairies, and distance.  I think they appeal to those who don’t want to pay taxes, but don’t want to actually live in the state, either.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      Cameron

      January 6, 2023 at 6:40 pm

      @Kent: An individualized educational format such as New College has couldn’t handle a large student body. Plus,it’s limited physically. I pass the campus on my way to downtown Sarasota, and I don’t think it has much room to expand.

      Reply
    72. 72.

      Elizabelle

      January 6, 2023 at 6:42 pm

      @Cameron:  Hmmm.  Maybe DeSantis is focusing on New College because it is so small and therefore easier to make the changes (OK, destroy the program).

      Reply
    73. 73.

      Bill Arnold

      January 6, 2023 at 6:45 pm

      @ian:

      I want to leave a dead rotting fish in Rufo’s floorboards.

      Fuck that. I want Rufo to get unlucky with a COVID-19 case and have his sense of smell fucked up so that every food he loves smells like a 3 way cross between rotting fish, rotting mammal flesh, and rotting shit. For the rest of his miserable life.

      (That’d be a good start, just to be clear about how much I despise that person.)

      Reply
    74. 74.

      Cameron

      January 6, 2023 at 6:47 pm

      One of the things that really impressed me when I moved to Florida was the high quality of public universities. That should be a point of pride. Or so I thought. Foolish me.

      Reply
    75. 75.

      Cameron

      January 6, 2023 at 6:48 pm

      @Elizabelle: That makes sense.

      Reply
    76. 76.

      Sasha

      January 6, 2023 at 6:50 pm

      @schrodingers_cat:

      Rich boomers retiring to the state and voting as they always have.

      Reply
    77. 77.

      Omnes Omnibus

      January 6, 2023 at 6:50 pm

      @Elizabelle: I think it is the type of school and the type of education it provides.  DeSantis, et al., have no problem with a liberal arts education for themselves, but they don’t want it for the general public.  Vocational education is enough for them lest they get ideas above their station.  It is quite feudal.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      FrankTheTank

      January 6, 2023 at 6:51 pm

      Amen to that Betty!!  The wife and I graduated from USF in the 80s.  It was a great school.  Luckily my kids made it thru the NC University system before the Rep vandals here f’ed all up.

      Reply
    79. 79.

      Sister Golden Bear

      January 6, 2023 at 6:54 pm

      @Dan B:

      The drumbeat of attacks on trans people and drag queens is awful.  The Christianists don’t do math.  They fail to see that the number of child molesters among pastors is in the thousands while the number of molesters among trans and drag queens is likely 1.

      It’s not rational. It’s not even a conspiracy theory, it’s an eliminationist justification for violence against us. The facts don’t matter.

      Reply
    80. 80.

      Elizabelle

      January 6, 2023 at 6:55 pm

      @Omnes Omnibus:

      It is quite feudal.

      I wish we could go medieval on their asses.

      Very sad what has been happening to Florida.  I remember Senator Bill Nelson and Governor Bob Graham.  Now it’s hacks and performance artists.

      Reply
    81. 81.

      Elizabelle

      January 6, 2023 at 6:58 pm

      It’s really tragic that these hacks and miscreants and outright criminals are in charge of a state with such unique natural resources, too.

      The professors and academics can adapt more quickly than our sealife and flora and fauna.  Save the manatees.  Save the birds and aquatic life.  (ETA:  the Burmese pythons can go to hell.  Or, eat Florida Republicans.  Carl Hiaasen had that one right. Ssssss.)

      Reply
    82. 82.

      Bill Arnold

      January 6, 2023 at 7:01 pm

      @Sister Golden Bear:

      Bills in Oklahoma, South Carolina, and New Hampshire that ban gender affirming care

      New Hampshire? That’s a bit of a surprise. I wonder whether that’s a single ideologue, or a few, or more widespread.
      The surge in these moves on the right are frankly terrifying me. And most of the hate-troops are profoundly gullible.

      Reply
    83. 83.

      Cameron

      January 6, 2023 at 7:05 pm

      @Elizabelle: Agree. There’s loads of fascinating cultural and historical stuff, too.  So much worth preserving, but….

      Reply
    84. 84.

      Betty Cracker

      January 6, 2023 at 7:09 pm

      @Elizabelle: Amen to every word of that.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      Elizabelle

      January 6, 2023 at 7:14 pm

      @Betty Cracker:   Thank you, Betty.

      How are your little lakeshore dwellers doing?  Badger and Pete behaving themselves??

      Reply
    86. 86.

      BruceFromOhio

      January 6, 2023 at 7:21 pm

      Ohio’s penchant for using Florida as a template makes me fear for the state schools here.

      Reply
    87. 87.

      BruceFromOhio

      January 6, 2023 at 7:24 pm

      @Elizabelle: its a great technique: make it so disgusting that good people tune it out and stop participating, lets the charlatans scoop up what’s left and have at.

      Reply
    88. 88.

      Burnspbesq

      January 6, 2023 at 7:27 pm

      Florida is probably still is one of the best SEC schools academically.  I mean look at the competition.  After Georgia, what is left?  Maybe A&M?  It is frankly embarrassing compared to the Big-10 or Pac-12.

      And the ACC? Or are Duke, UVA, Wake, and Georgia Tech just chopped liver?

      When my friends and I were looking at colleges in the early 70s, New College’s niche was “the Hampshire alternative if you can’t hack Massachusetts winters.”

      Reply
    89. 89.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 7:31 pm

      @Omnes Omnibus:@Kent: If you don’t mean to be a dick, then don’t be one.  Small schools can be valuable and innovative.  But you know that coming from Reed.

      Reed gave me basically zero guidance or career path advice that wasn’t grad school, med school, or law school.  I’m sending all my kids to public schools because I believe in public education and I’m not interested hording privilege by sending them to a school with a lot of really rich kids.  Reed has an estimated cost of attendance of $83,500 and half the kids who attend are full pay (no financial aid) which puts them in the $250K and above range for parent income, minimum,

      Understand I’m not defending DeSantis in the slightest and I’m a huge supporter of public education, both K-12 and higher education.  I’m simply asking what makes New College a jewel of progressive education when it seems to only educate a tiny number of what appears at first glance to be mostly middle class and affluent white kids with only tiny numbers of Black kids or first generation immigrant kids.

      My definition of “progressive education” is very different from “we don’t have majors or grades”  I look more at what kind of progressive impact a school makes on the world and whether it moves people up in the world rather than mainly hordes privilege for those who are already there.  Reed is not a progressive school. It mostly perpetuates wealth and privilege.

      I teach mainly Hispanic and Asian students and a lot of my white students are first generation immigrants from Russia and Ukraine.  Would I send my best students to New College (or our local equivalent, Evergreen?)  Probably not, in fact I don’t.  There are at least 8 local public universities that I would rate higher and better places for my students to attend.

      Reply
    90. 90.

      Omnes Omnibus

      January 6, 2023 at 7:42 pm

      @Kent: All students, of course, will do well at large public universities.  And, equally, there is no such thing as a small jewel.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      Burnspbesq

      January 6, 2023 at 7:42 pm

      @Kent:

      Reed gave me basically zero guidance or career path advice that wasn’t grad school, med school, or law school

      Did you expect something else? Reed is the Northwest’s version of the NESCAC schools. Its mission is to take smart, affluent white kids (and a smattering of others, depending on the needs of the athletic department) and put them on very conventional paths to “success.”

      Put another way, it’s a four-year LSAT prep course.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      CaseyL

      January 6, 2023 at 7:48 pm

      I have to say, Florida has been that way for a while – when I first left in 1976 (for Seattle) one of the reasons I wanted to leave was how backward and just plain “Southern” Florida was anywhere outside of Dade and Broward County.  (Not that Dade-Broward were all that great; they just weren’t quite as bad; or, rather, they were awful but in different ways.)

      I went to UF my frosh and soph years, and meeting people my own age group from all parts of Florida was, shall we say, eye opening.  I did get a decent education, because there were some terrific professors, but…

      Look, my dorm roomie the first year was a Little Sister with one of the fraternities, and… holyyyyyyy sheeeeit the activities and attitudes just boggled my childlike mind.  I never wanted to think in stereotypes, spent a fair bit of my energy training myself not to think in stereotypes, and suddenly there I was, knee deep in every Southern Girl and Southern Guy stereotype I had tried to dismiss.

      When I had to go back to Florida in the 1980s, I again landed in a realm where reality lost every battle to fantasy stereotype.  This was the age of Miami Vice and, as I’ve said before, what you saw on TV was really what the Miami area was like.  Five years of wondering if I was crazy, or needed to go crazy fast to survive. I fled back to Seattle at the first opportunity, and quite literally kissed the concourse carpet when I disembarked at Seatac International.

      So… yes, it’s awful what DeSantis is doing to higher education – and to everything else – in Florida.  But it’s not like he took an intellectual or social or political paradise and turned it to shit.  Florida has been shitty, for a very long time, in every way imaginable.

      Sorry, Betty Cracker.

      Reply
    93. 93.

      pat

      January 6, 2023 at 7:53 pm

      Haven’t read any comments yet and this may be the end of the thread but…
      The thought that desatan could actually be elected president is terrifying.

      Reply
    94. 94.

      Bill Arnold

      January 6, 2023 at 7:54 pm

      @Kent:

      But I have to ask what kind of a jewel of progressive education is it if it only educates about 150 people/year in a state of 21 million people.

      It’s important enough, or at least symbolic enough, that radical right wing operatives want to break it.

      Reply
    95. 95.

      Elizabelle

      January 6, 2023 at 7:54 pm

      @pat:  So.  Do not terrify yourself.  Don’t even think of that.

      Is there anything you can do, tonight, about it?  Nope.  Let it go.

      Reply
    96. 96.

      Omnes Omnibus

      January 6, 2023 at 7:57 pm

      @Bill Arnold: Best answer yet.

      Reply
    97. 97.

      Allen Henderson

      January 6, 2023 at 8:20 pm

      Longtime BJ lurker here — and New College alum. This is heartbreaking to read. And, I mean, I just contributed to one of their funds :-/

       

      The college has cycled between public and private. Maybe that can again be an option to avoid the deliberate sabotage of a truly excellent educational value (and, honestly, a very strong academic experience)

      Reply
    98. 98.

      Feathers

      January 6, 2023 at 8:21 pm

      I’m reminded that when I lived in this town for the first time back in the 80s there was a local election about expanding the high school. One neighbor said she was voting against it because improving the schools would attract the wrong kind of people. The bond issue failed.

      The high school is currently undergoing its second expansion since then. (The wrong sort of people flooded into town after Cambridge ended rent control.) Told someone at the library about the olden days. It wasn’t clear that she believed me. I think she  just couldn’t even comprehend that someone would see her as the wrong kind of person. I think this unawareness is part of how we’ve ended up with the right wind resurgence.

      Reply
    99. 99.

      ColoradoGuy

      January 6, 2023 at 8:25 pm

      Thanks for pointing out that Florida is a magnet for South and Central American fascists, the kind of wealthy families who think Pinochet was one of good guys, and making family riches off drug profits is a respectable lifestyle.

      These are the people the MAGAs would love to emulate … actual crime families who machine-gun their rivals as a matter of everyday business. Putin is the most influential of any of these crime families, but the South and Central America families just operate on a smaller scale. And when their own countries get a little too hot, guess where they end up? Not in Wyoming or Idaho.

      No wonder Florida politics are being dragged to the far right; crime families have enormous influence on local politics, and it’s always in the direction of fascism.

      Reply
    100. 100.

      gene108

      January 6, 2023 at 8:31 pm

      @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

      How did this snarling, charmless douchebag go from winning by less than .5% to almost 20?

      He’s giving the people what they want, apparently.

      Reply
    101. 101.

      Gvg

      January 6, 2023 at 8:39 pm

      @Kent: New College is a Public University and attended by ordinary middle class. The state of Florida has done better than most at staying affordable though not as well as I would like. Mainly just in comparison to how expensive other states are. Anyway the per credit hour tuition for instate at New college is $192.10 currently. Look up your schools now for comparison.

      I went there for a year 81-82 but was too homesick to stay.

      The state of Florida system has built a lot of advantages over decades that I hope can outlast DeSantis. One big one is common course numbering so that a student can transfer courses from any state school to another and not lose much credit, all the colleges and universities. That is a big deal when people have to move for jobs or marriage. It means that people can finish degrees they started 10 or 20 years ago that the stopped because mom got sick, they got married or the money ran out. They don’t give up because they are living 200 miles away next to a different state school now. And now some of them are finishing over the internet a 1000 miles away that started here. New College is the smallest, the biggest are over 50,000 students. People need a range of choices.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      gene108

      January 6, 2023 at 8:49 pm

      @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

      Why are they still doing this extreme shit? Have they learned nothing from the 2022 midterms?

      Outside of NH, the states Sister Golden Bear listed are strongly Republican and seem to be trending more Republican. I don’t see any state level blowback in TX, MO, or OK.

      Reply
    103. 103.

      Betty Cracker

      January 6, 2023 at 8:56 pm

      @Kent: Your “first glance” is absolutely fucking wrong. Stop digging. Jesus.

      Reply
    104. 104.

      Betty Cracker

      January 6, 2023 at 9:11 pm

      @CaseyL: Nothing changed from 1976 to the present, obviously. Jesus Fucking Christ. Was it an “intellectual or social or political paradise?” No. No one claimed it was. But you could get a quality education in state, and now Christo-fascist lunatics are obliterating that.

      Reply
    105. 105.

      Betty Cracker

      January 6, 2023 at 9:14 pm

      @Elizabelle: I’m cautiously optimistic about the dogs — we’ve had some breakthroughs! I hope all is well with you.

      Reply
    106. 106.

      Citizen Alan

      January 6, 2023 at 9:23 pm

      @Elizabelle:  The last 23 years would have gone better for us all if Al Gore had just had the damned sense to make Bob Graham his running mate.

      Reply
    107. 107.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 9:26 pm

      @Betty Cracker:@Kent: Your “first glance” is absolutely fucking wrong. Stop digging. Jesus.

      Looking at the data, New College appears to have the lowest percentage of Black students (4%) and the lowest percentage of first generation immigrant students, and the second lowest percentage of Pell Grant students (28%) of any 4-year public school in Florida.  Also the lowest percentage of Hispanic students.   Only University of Florida has slightly less poor students but is more diverse on every other measure.  In fact New College looks to easily be the whitest public school in all of Florida.  Is that wrong?  The numbers, for example, at nearby University of South Florida are more than double that on all counts.   Even Florida State does better on every one of those metrics.  So New College is easily the whitest and second wealthiest public school in Florida.  Basically what I said.  You can pull this information up from the Niche or College Confidential profiles.

      Reply
    108. 108.

      Anotherlurker

      January 6, 2023 at 9:27 pm

      @Andrew Abshier: Didn’t anti-vax/anti-science extremists take over the board of a big hospital in Sarasota?

      Reply
    109. 109.

      Omnes Omnibus

      January 6, 2023 at 9:55 pm

      @Kent: Maybe all that is due to people like you steering people away from schools like it.

      Reply
    110. 110.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 9:57 pm

      @Omnes Omnibus: What, they don’t have any agency?

      Reply
    111. 111.

      Omnes Omnibus

      January 6, 2023 at 9:59 pm

      @Kent: Who are they in your question?

      Reply
    112. 112.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 10:15 pm

      @Omnes Omnibus: The no doubt many highly paid administrators running New College.

      Reply
    113. 113.

      Omnes Omnibus

      January 6, 2023 at 10:27 pm

      @Kent: ​
        How are they going stop people like you from telling high school seniors “You don’t want to go there. It is too white and well off. Why don’t you go someplace where you will feel more comfortable?”

      OTOH two middle-aged, white guys from expensive private colleges who actually know fuck all about New College probably aren’t the best people to resolve this issue.

      Reply
    114. 114.

      Kent

      January 6, 2023 at 10:56 pm

      @Omnes Omnibus: I have never said anything at all like that to any HS student.   Well, correction  I did say something similar to one of my Black students in TX who was being recruited to play football at Boise State.  I mean, come on…Idaho?   I told him if he was going to leave the state for football he should go to someplace like UCLA or Georgia Tech instead.  The best school that will have him.  I think he wound up at Oklahoma.

      What I have noticed is that really smart immigrant kids aren’t impressed by things like “we are really progressive because we don’t have grades and you can invent your own major”.

      Reply
    115. 115.

      Rebel’s Dad

      January 6, 2023 at 11:11 pm

      “I don’t imagine Floridians will rise up… A majority of citizens here just don’t seem to give a shit“

       

      Unfortunately, that seems to be the most effective way to describe both Florida and Texas in the 21st century. Two states, capable of such great things, reduced to hellscapes by “I got mine, fuck you” philosophy.

      Reply
    116. 116.

      Eliza

      January 6, 2023 at 11:19 pm

      @Baud: alum here, I don’t have the words

      Reply
    117. 117.

      Betty Cracker

      January 7, 2023 at 5:19 am

      @Kent: According to US News, 36% of students are POC. It’s also known to be especially welcoming to queer students. It’ll probably be much whiter and less welcoming in the future now that it’s being converted into a Christo-fascist diploma mill. But who cares, right? It’s a tiny school and the sort you would personally steer kids away from, so not worthy of discussion.

      Reply
    118. 118.

      David Anderson

      January 7, 2023 at 8:21 am

      @Chief Oshkosh: as someone who will be in the academic job market in a few years, this shit will strongly influence my search space

      Reply
    119. 119.

      Julie

      January 7, 2023 at 9:58 pm

      @Baud: You are correct.  It sucks.

      Reply
    120. 120.

      Julie

      January 7, 2023 at 10:04 pm

      @Betty Cracker: Please tell me you are being sarcastic. You clearly have no idea about New College – and I’m thrilled you weren’t my parent, Ms. Cracker.   New College is a gem – and is an oasis –or was an oasis– for its diverse student body, which of course strengthens the school that much more.  Academics are challenging, real world. Classics my butt.   What DeSantis wants is to kill New College, which has been on many a governor’s plate.   Why do you think people would “steer” their kids away from it?  Oh wait, people want sheep, not independent, innovative, articulate thinkers.  Got’cha.

      Reply

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