The first results of the survey of Florida state colleges' budgets for their critical race theory (CRT) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives were provided to the public, showing how much taxpayer money is going to bigoted teachings about race.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' office admitted they believe the self-reported figures were "significantly misreported and under-reported. This speaks directly to the issue raised by the governor at the press conference on January 31st in Sarasota: these DEI and CRT bureaucracies are large, bloated, and self-serving. Nonetheless, what was reported revealed an extraordinary misuse of taxpayer dollars to promote a political agenda at the expense of academic focus."
The money going towards CRT and DEI initiatives goes into the millions of dollars:
- The "Chief Diversity Officer" and support staff at the University of Florida, which costs taxpayers over $750,000 per year
- The "Center for Environmental Equity and Justice" at FAMU that costs taxpayers $1.8 million per year
- The "Diversity and Inclusion Office" at USF which costs taxpayers over $1.1 million per year
- The "Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" at FIU which costs taxpayers over $1 million per year
- In addition, FIU has a separate "Office of Social Justice and Inclusion" that costs an additional $150,000 to the taxpayer, annually
- The UCF Vice President for "Diversity Equity and Inclusion" and assistant are paid a combined $445,000 at taxpayer expense, annually
DeSantis' office said an example of a college not reporting everything relating to what they were supposed to includes the the University of Florida's "Youth Gender" program, which they know the school has because it is listed on their website. The governor's office added they will continue to discover the full amount of money that is being used towards such programs.
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