A.G. Gancarski
For a second time during his Michigan trip Thursday, Ron DeSantis extolled his own performance in remaking New College of Florida, and found a uniquely receptive audience at Hillsdale College for his pledge to turn it into a “little Hillsdale.”
“We put six conservative board members on a small liberal arts college in Sarasota called New College. I put Dr. (Matthew) Spalding on, I put Christopher Rufo from the Manhattan Institute and some other people,” DeSantis said. “They came in, got rid of the president, hired a president, eliminated DEI and CRT.”
“The President fired the Provost and it’s now been a new mission of being a classical liberal arts college. So we’re going to be like a little Hillsdale maybe down in Florida. Can you imagine how good that would be?”
These remarks were the second ones he made in Michigan clowning New College.
In remarks at the Midland County Republican Party Spring Breakfast, DeSantis claimed that no one had heard of the school before he made his changes.
“I had a small liberal arts college in Sarasota called New College of Sarasota (sic). I don’t think anyone had even heard of it. Very few people had heard of it. It was performing very poorly,” DeSantis contended.
“It was supposed to be Florida’s top honors college in the entire state under Florida Statute. That’s what it says. But what happened is it became an ideological epicenter. It was all about things like gender ideology, (critical race theory) and all that,” DeSantis added. “And we don’t think that that has a lot of value from the perspective of our taxpayers.”
The Governor framed his drastic revision to the college’s board of trustees, which installed former Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran as President and gave him a $699,000 salary, as a way to “make sure it aligns with the state’s values.”
On Jan. 6, 2023 the Governor named six new members (Mark Bauerlein, Debra Jenks, Charles Kesler, Rufo, Spalding and Eddie Speir) to the board, in a push to make the quirky Southwest Florida school what one senior aide called the “Hillsdale of the South.”
Those board members are subject to Senate confirmation, and that process is moving this Legislative Session. On Wednesday, the Senate Education Postsecondary Committee advanced the confirmation of the new trustees on a 5-2 party-line vote.
11 comments
Dr. Franklin Waters
April 6, 2023 at 8:20 pm
Nah. It will churn out the kind of dum-dums who think the earth is flat, and the dinosaurs didn’t exist.
Chief Osceola
April 11, 2023 at 11:02 pm
Unlike the blue haired trannies, minor attracted persons, and obese reverse racists on welfare that currently “graduate” from NCF, such persons can build things and will fight in wars.
The Doctor is OUT!!!
Billy the Bamboozler McBlue-hair
April 6, 2023 at 9:00 pm
It will produce people who can’t think for themselves and have no critical thinking.. just do what they are told. Kinda like robots or slaves. Add to that religion and you’ve got a nut job.
Chief Osceola
April 11, 2023 at 11:03 pm
Excellent satirical comment about the left, or spectacular self own, one or the other.
Bill Pollard
April 6, 2023 at 10:10 pm
Freedom in Florida is being taken away at a rapid pace. At some point much of what has been done will reach the US Supreme Court.
Corruption in Florida
April 6, 2023 at 11:05 pm
Yes, or the younger generation needs to rise up and organize and vote every single Republican out of office in Florida. And then literally strip all the bills that DeSantis and the legislators put through to rob the Floridians of freedoms.
Marcus
April 9, 2023 at 11:14 am
I agree, but this state is so gerrymandered that it almost doesn’t matter anymore.
Also, less drop boxes, shorter voting hours, dumping people off the voter rolls without informing them, etc.
This is the only way DeSantis’ and his people can win.
Hopefully, other states are watching him and will not vote for him over their own interests.
Florida is a lost cause (unfortunately). This is all about hate in so many forms. Yet all of these actors claim to be religious. It really doesn’t seem like any one of these “Godly” people have ever picked up a bible.
Corruption in Florida
April 6, 2023 at 10:42 pm
Sounds like it’s going to be another trump university. Except in this case, DeSantis uses Florida, taxpayer dollars to lead his corruption campaign.
I will make a bet within the next five years DeSantis gets indicted for corruption
Cassandra Potter
April 7, 2023 at 8:02 am
No matter what the “little” governor says, New College will never be a “little” Hillsdale. People’s needs, dreams and rights still matter.
DeSantis’ actions are so disrespectful, anti-pedagogical and nakedly political that centrist and also conservative Floridians and Americans are recoiling. Public sentiment is not on his side.
We are in Holy Week. The governor’s Trumpian egotism, spite and, frankly, contempt for millions of his fellow Americans is especially jarring to witness as we approach Easter.
Chief Osceola
April 11, 2023 at 11:05 pm
Let me guess, you celebrate (((Passover)))?
Bert Stimson
April 10, 2023 at 11:31 pm
Does he realize that “big Hillsdale” is a terrible school? This tiny man is a huge phony
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