DeSantis Signs Bill Banning Identity Politics And Indoctrination In Classrooms.

Curriculum changes are coming to teacher preparation programs in Florida.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed bills that include seeking to prevent "indoctrination" in teacher-training programs and beginning to allow credit unions to hold state money.

Before the press conference at VyStar Tower in downtown Jacksonville, started, signs that read “Stop Global Elites” were passed out to attendees.

Under a new law, teacher prep courses are banned from “distorting significant events.” Governor Ron DeSantis signed the measure aimed at keeping “identity politics” out of the programs during a news conference in Jacksonville Thursday.

The teacher training bill (HB 1291) was one of the most controversial education issues of this year's legislative session.

“We don’t want these teacher preparation programs to become captive to someone’s ideological agenda,” Gov. DeSantis said.

The new law says the state’s 57 teacher preparation programs can’t include lessons “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.”

“This prohibits the indoctrination of teacher preparation. There’s not going to be DEI. There’s not going to be any of the bogus history. It’s just going to be standard teacher preparation,” Gov. DeSantis said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a statement Thursday criticizing the bill, describing it as an "effort to silence educational programs that teach empathy and respect for all."

"There is no greater threat to our democracy than efforts to scare Floridians out of exercising their right to free speech and to have open and honest discussions about the role racism and oppression played in the history of our country," Sam Boyd, senior supervising attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in the statement. "Courts have already ruled that laws like these, which seek to impose censorship on higher education, are unconstitutional. This law is no different."

"HB 1291 will infringe upon freedom of speech and continue to keep Floridians uneducated and keep them from having honest discussions about our country's past," Kara Gross, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said in a statement. "This is a blatant effort by certain lawmakers to limit discussions and censor viewpoints that they do not agree with."

DeSantis said the measure will take effect July 1.

In addition, DeSantis signed House Bill 989, which “increases protection for customers of financial institutions operating in Florida from unwarranted account cancellations and restrictions through a coordinated complaint and investigatory process within the Office of Financial Regulation,” according to a news release from the governor’s office.

The bill also “removes Florida’s exclusive preference of holding public funds with banks, particularly with out-of-state big banks, by allowing community-based credit unions to hold public funds and permits the Chief Financial Officer to have a dedicated consumer-liaison for assistance dealing with the Federal Internal Revenue Service,” the release stated.

“We reject a global elite trying to force their ideology on us by capturing major institutions,” said DeSantis. “We are not going to allow big banks to discriminate based on someone’s political or religious beliefs, and we will continue to fight back against indoctrination in education and the workplace.”

Ron DeSantis.Photo byGetty Images