Good luck finding right-wing professors, Ron. Alumni of the Florida Universities are going to be really mad when the schools can't fund football and basketball in the coming years. They already have a recruiting crisis due to Ron's actions.
If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.
If conservatives become convinced that an education makes people less conservative, then they will not gaze inward to wonder why that might be, but instead reject education.
Absolutely no shortage of right-wing academics and ideologues who would be happy to take an $80k/year stipend to tell their RAs to play PraegerU videos for an auditorium-sized classroom while they clumsily flirt with freshman co-eds in the back office.
Once you abandon the idea of education as a real thing that colleges are actually supposed to do, its basically just a no-show job that functions as a kick-back to your cronies.
I've wondered how long we'll go before universities across the country start refusing to accept Florida high school graduates because their coursework does not meet basic acceptance criteria. I can see the Ivy league starting first because they have a legitimate reason to want their incoming freshmen to have top-notch coursework under their belt so they can hit the ground running, and once the first domino falls I'd imagine lots of universities would rush to join the chorus. If Florida officials want their kids to learn that slavery was good and that rainbows don't exist, then fine. They're disqualified from attending tertiary institutions whose history and sociology instruction is predicated on those things being bullshit. It'd be no different from some crazy-ass wingnut homeschooler trying to get into Harvard after having taken classes like "Cell Biology and Jesus", "Why God Made Calculus", and "The Physics of Heaven" from their mom.
I've wondered how long we'll go before universities across the country start refusing to accept Florida high school graduates because their coursework does not meet basic acceptance criteria.
This is exactly what DeSantis and his ilk want. Conservatives are scared shitless of their kids going off to university and finding out that their parents and schools have been lying to them their whole life.
Solution: Ensure no out-of-state schools will accept your students so they're stuck in your shitty system forever.
I remember a homeschooled kid the first year of college. Their whole life was turned upside down. Couldn't finish the year, then they enlisted. Never heard what happened after
While this would make a big statement, the real victims would be innocent teenagers. Arguably we should be doing the opposite and trying to get as many of them out of that state as possible.
Meh. If it doesn't directly impact them or their families, conservatives won't give a shit. So I say make it very real for them, and make it clear their children are learning a version of history that significantly undermines their academic and professional careers. Harvard doesn't owe them shit, and Karen McBurnaBook won't pay attention to a word you say until little Annie can't get into college and has to take remedial classes at the community college to qualify for an out-of-state 4-year institution. Maybe that way Annie will be forced to stand up to her parents' bullshit antics when they show up at the school board meeting to call everyone a pedophile.
You want to make an omelet? Gotta break some eggs, unfortunately.
Florida is in for a rough time, in the next ten years will have a massive shortage of medical workers, teachers, and professionals. It will be the most uneducated state in the western hemisphere and likely a major center of criminal activity.
Not to worry. The real estate market will prop up their econo… wait…. Oh. Um. At least they have good tourism because of Disn…. Huh. Ummmm… they can go swimming in the FL keys! The hot tub ocean temps will feel good till you want to cool off.
They’re also loosing agricultural and construction workers as DeSantis’s anti-immigration policies drives away illegal migrants who filled those positions in under-the-table jobs.
In ten years I could see all three having very low education rates. Alabama will still have college graduates though, Florida might lose it's colleges.
One of my kids is a sophomore in high school (we live in FL unfortunately), she wants to be a vet but we will probably be looking to other states to send her to college. Political climate down here is ridiculous right now.
The people who matter to the Florida Fascists all have investments in other states and countries. They aren't dependent on the local economy prospering; and they benefit from keeping state and local taxes low.
They can import doctors and other skilled laborers from overseas. Then by eliminating birthright citizenship and restricting naturalization, they can ensure that those skilled laborers' children will not become citizens. Uppity immigrants will be stuffed in a box and mailed to California.
By destroying public education, they ensure that those skilled laborers (and everyone else) must pay far-right private schools to educate their children. Only far-right schools and teachers will be permitted to operate; all others will be prosecuted as "groomers" and/or just lynched by outraged "mothers' groups".
Crime is very good for fascists; it keeps rich people scared of poor people, and thus willing to support politicized-militarized police violence, private militias, etc.
The goal is to replicate a fascist social structure, which is a parody of a traditional conservative social structure — with the aristocracy replaced by the loyal Party elite; church replaced with Party rallies; and multigenerational family replaced with atomized nuclear families whose man-of-the-house must be tested for Party loyalty. These all stand above the racial underclass — who do the doctoring, landscaping, and cocaine importing, and who don't get to do things like vote, question the police, or get their rape kits tested.
Being a trad dad isn't enough, men; if you tolerate political dissent among your children, they will be taken away from you and given to a Party-loyal abuser. Today it's your trans kid; tomorrow it's your teenager who's a Greta Thunberg fan. Permitting your daughter to attend an illegal protest is proof that you're a bad father — so you go to prison for child abuse, and she goes to the basement of some Gaetz-lookin' dude who attends Party rallies every Sunday with his terrified wife.
Most likely this drain of academics was an intended effect of the laws passed under DeSantis. The loss of academics hobbles institutes of higher learning while positions remain unfilled, resulting in a more ignorant populace. It also opens the possibility for far right extremists to infiltrate academia to corrupt academic thought and principles from within. The danger of ultra right wing, bigoted, nationalistic, authoritarianism continues to grow. How long before more right wing states follow suit?
The voters may not want the economy to suffer but DeSantis and his cronies do. It's part of the GOP playbook. Damage the economy with tax cuts and other legislation, then blame the Democrats for the bad economy. Their voters always fall for it.
Conservatives have been gutting education for 40 years. Look at the educational outcomes in Republican run states. They like ignorant, meaning uneducated voters. Crippling higher education is definitely their goal.
A lot of people on this thread are saying the consequences of these policies is intentional.
I don’t give them that much credit. I don’t think they fully understand the consequences of these policies. And as things go to shit, they will just blame liberals.
And this is all really sad. There are some really nice parts of Florida, with some really nice people. Fucking sucks. Oh well.
They definitely wouldn't. But if push came to a shove, I wonder if they'd really be able to stop them? I'm not really clear on the finer legal points. But I know that for the American Civil War, the south all left the federal government (which presumably would have made it easier to pass any bills regarding the south) and they also basically forced armed conflict (both by attacking first and by seizing federal bases).
I'm not sure if a single state leaving would have the same effect, especially with how divided American politicians are. I don't fully understand if anything actually needs to be voted on (I do know that the American Civil War didn't formally declare war), but if anything had to be, it's hard to picture even a single GOPer doing anything (nor enough Democrats to pass anything -- never mind that in the Senate, the fillibuster means that if the GOP refuses to vote, that's the end of things).
So it's a pretty big worry, in my mind. With all the shit states like Florida have done, I wouldn't put it past them to try and secede. And no matter what, there's no way that would end well. Either things will get a lot worse for any Floridans that aren't cis, straight, and white, or there'll be a war that costs a lot of lives. It's a lose-lose for any decent person. Only fascists stand to gain and they have power in Florida.
This isn't intentional. Florida's politicians want an educated, wealthy population and to fight a meaningless culture war with Disney and young people (to keep Boomers happy).
They are too dumb to see they can't have their cake and eat it too! This will be one expensive culture war.
Quality universities create quality employees and quality (tax paying) companies. By the end of the decade, and the region will stagnate and you'll see a "new" Republican going full panic mode to fix the damage (while somehow blaming it on Democrats).
In short: There is NO plan. They're just THAT shortsighted! (Everything you see can be, once again, explained by simple Boomer overindulgence)