Republican Legislators In Texas And Florida Take On Public Universities

Last week, Republican lawmakers in Texas and Florida made significant gains in their efforts to increase governmental oversight at public institutions of higher learning. On April 20th, the Texas Senate passed Texas Senate Bill 18 (SB 18), which will eliminate tenure for professors at public colleges and universities in the state hired after January 1, 2024. Additionally, following months of debate, Florida House Bill 999 has advanced through the House Education and Employment Committee and has been revised to mirror the same DEI-eliminating legislation going through the Florida State Senate.

While the contents of the bills may appear divergent, both resulted from Republican policymakers’ initiatives to regulate the discussion of race and sexuality in the classroom at public educational institutions. Conservative lawmakers in Texas allege that instituting tiered employment structures and annual reviews for faculty members will increase their accountability, particularly as they teach divisive topics. According to Republican Senator Brandon Creighton, author of SB 18: “The brand and the reputation of several colleges and universities have been damaged because of the actions of the few vocal fringe tenure faculty.”

Faculty members and university administrators have expressed concern that these moves will discourage competitive faculty candidates from pursuing employment at Texas universities—a particularly disheartening prospect given the reputational improvement schools such as the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University have seen in recent years. Last year, Jay Hartzell, President of UT-Austin, denounced efforts to ban tenure, stating that: “Removing tenure would not only cripple Texas’ ability to recruit and retain great faculty members, it would also hurt Texas students, who would not be able to stay in state knowing that they will be learning from the very best in the country.”

Additionally, UT-Austin professor Jennifer Ebbeler notes in an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed that tenure does not, as lawmakers have indicated, preclude a professor from annual reviews or performance evaluations. On the contrary, she writes: “The notion that Texas’s public universities are full of ‘deadwood’ tenured faculty who do nothing but collect a paycheck is a convenient myth for opponents of tenure. In truth, we are evaluated far more intensively than employees in other employment sectors.”

Clashes between universities and lawmakers over public university policy and curriculum have also raged in Florida.

According to Divya Kumar at the Tampa Bay Times, HB 999 and SB 266 were designed to rid state universities in Florida of what proponents of the bill consider “indoctrination.” They would do this by “expanding the powers of boards of trustees over the hiring and firing of faculty and banning specified curriculum. They would also prohibit spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and establish three civic institutes at Florida universities.” However, due to fears of Florida universities losing their accreditation, the language of HB 999 was modified in the Florida Senate. According to Kumar, “The new versions of the bills no longer explicitly prohibit spending or instruction in diversity, equity, and inclusion, critical race theory or gender studies.” Instead, they ban the teaching of 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,” according to the language of the bill.

Even with these changes, legislators and activists arguing against the bill have claimed it constrains free speech and may diminish the rankings of Florida’s public universities. For example, Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director for the non-profit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, stated that the bill would “chill and censor pedagogically relevant speech” on campuses. In addition, Irene Mulvey, President of the American Association of University Professors, argued that “SB 266 will lead to diminished educational quality. And this will show up before you know it in measurable ways. In faculty leaving, in rankings, in accreditation, in applications, in enrollment and donations.”

Governor Greg Abbott has also previously taken action to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion from both the hiring processes and curriculum of Texas schools. SB 18 follows closely after another bill, SB 16, was sent to the Texas House of Representatives—which introduced legislation compelling institutions to fire faculty members who “attempt to compel a student enrolled at that institution to adopt a belief that any social, political or religious belief is inherently superior to any other.”

As the future of both bills hangs in the balance, Florida appears poised to pass the legislation, while Texas representatives in the House have not expressed a clear desire to pass SB 18. As pushes for education reforms in red states continue to gain momentum, both bills have the potential to inspire similar legislation beyond Texas and Florida.