[H-PAD] [URGENT] Whom do you know in Florida?

[Van Gosse]

Dear H-PAD supporters,



We don’t send many urgent alerts, but now is the time, and *we ask that you
take action now*.



The March 3 letter from the Council of the American Historical Association,
copied below, makes clear the stakes of what is involved in *Florida House
Bill 999*.



Governor Ron DeSantis and his legislative super-majority in Florida are
engaged in *“a hostile takeover of a state’s system of higher
education....[a] blatant and frontal attack on principles of academic
freedom and shared governance central to higher education in the United
States. Florida’s legislature has on its agenda a dagger to the heart of an
American institutional framework that has long been the envy of the world.”*



Our request is simple:  *forward this email to anyone you know in Florida
and ask them to pass it on*.  “Democracy dies in darkness” is a well-known
adage, and this is a stealth maneuver by forces hostile to the entire
premise of public education. Floridians need to understand the policy
legislated by HB999, and speak up against it, by writing their state
legislators, posting letters in newspapers, and talking to their neighbors.
 There is no time to lose. As the AHA Council says, *“This is not only
about Florida. It is about the heart and soul of public higher education in
the United States and about the role of history, historians, and historical
thinking in the lives of the next generation of Americans.”*



Margaret Power and Van Gosse, Co-Chairs



*AHA Statement Opposing Florida House Bill 999 *

*Approved by AHA Council, March 3, 2023 *



HB 999, filed in the Florida House of Representatives on February 21, 2023,
merits attention and comment.



The American Historical Association has been monitoring the genre of
legislation commonly referred to as “divisive concepts” bills for two
years. Normally we do not engage with what gets fed into the hopper; we
wait until legislation is viable, generally when a bill emerges from
committee. But HB 999 is different, and we consider it imperative to speak
out immediately and forcefully. What has previously best been characterized
as unwarranted political intervention into public education has now
escalated to an attempt at a hostile takeover of a state’s system of higher
education.



We express horror (not our usual “concern”) at the assumptions that lie at
the heart of this bill and its blatant and frontal attack on principles of
academic freedom and shared governance central to higher education in the
United States. Florida’s legislature has on its agenda a dagger to the
heart of an American institutional framework that has long been the envy of
the world (and a source of billions of dollars in revenue from
international students).



What would implementation of this legislation look like? Consider history
education.



HB 999 allows political appointees unprecedented oversight of day-to-day
educational decisions. Universities and departments will face consequences
should unelected partisan actors decide that any “general education core
courses” somehow “suppress or distort significant historical events.” All
history teachers “suppress” some events; everything has a history, and no
course can include all histories. It is up to the teacher, within
reasonable state guidelines, to select what is most important and most
useful to students in a particular class. All else is “suppressed.”



The bill also gives to boards of trustees the authority to determine if and
when teachers of a mandated set of core courses have “define[d] American
history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on the universal
principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” Is it illegal for a
faculty member to suggest that the US Constitution, rather than the
Declaration of Independence, created the political framework for the new
nation? Given that HB 999 would empower boards of regents to review the
tenure status of any faculty member, such legitimate (and pedagogically
useful) interpretive disagreements could have dire implications for all
instructors, even faculty best protected by traditional norms of governance
and procedure.



This is not merely an escalation of the “history wars” that have ebbed and
flowed across the American landscape—and indeed, in other nations as well;
the United States is hardly exceptional in this regard. Like the proponents
of more conventional “divisive concepts” legislation, advocates of this
particular assault especially fear the implications of the state’s youth
learning that slavery and racism have enduring legacies. The idea that
racism is a central aspect of American historical development—and its
enduring presence in institutions, cultures, and practices—is well within
the mainstream of historical scholarship, however much we might disagree
about dynamics, relationships, and models of change. Notably, HB 999
mentions “critical race theory” more often than the words “democracy,”
“freedom,” and “liberty” combined. This legislation aims to incite and
divide, rather than to establish a healthy foundation for civic
understanding.



The AHA does not disagree with HB 999’s premise that the mission of the
state university system should be “education for citizenship of the
constitutional republic [and] . . . the state’s existing and emerging
workforce needs.” Employers look for applicants who have learned *how *to
think, rather than *what *to think. Using evidence and deciding what facts
matter is vital to being a successful engineer, doctor, or teacher. Would
we want heart surgeons whose coursework or choice of tools had been
dictated by political appointees? As for the viability of our
constitutional republic, it is neither possible nor desirable to forge
unity by refusing to acknowledge and understand division; instead, the very
language of this legislation sows and perpetuates division. An informed
citizenry requires the skills of historical literacy and the ability to
test ideas, which is the core of history education.



This is not only about Florida. It is about the heart and soul of public
higher education in the United States and about the role of history,
historians, and historical thinking in the lives of the next generation of
Americans.
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