DeSantis announced that the leaders of all 40 public institutions in the state have signed a joint response to McMahon.<\/p>\n
Public institutions in Florida have responded en masse to Education Secretary Linda McMahon\u2019s<\/a> call to answer questions about admissions, academic rigor, affordability and other matters.<\/p>\n Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that the leaders of all 40 of the state\u2019s public institutions have signed on to a joint statement responding to concerns McMahon raised in a letter to the sector earlier this month. Officials noted in a\u00a030-page document<\/a>\u00a0that Florida has already addressed many of those questions.<\/p>\n Florida Commissioner of Education Henry Mack wrote that the state welcomed the \u201cCall to Action\u201d but said it has already enacted many of the changes the Trump administration is seeking.<\/p>\n \u201cFlorida is not beginning this work in response to your letter. For more than a decade, our state has deliberately built a public university and college system around academic excellence, affordability, accountability, free inquiry, merit, and economic relevance,\u201d he wrote to McMahon.<\/p>\n The letter said the state\u2019s institutions already emphasize merit in admissions processes, ongoing civil discourse initiatives, efforts to ensure syllabi are ideologically neutral or balanced, cost-cutting moves and other actions that correspond with the changes the Trump administration has demanded.<\/p>\n The Florida Department of Education also sent letters<\/a> to private institutions <\/a>asking them to respond to the questions posed by McMahon and post those answers online by Dec. 31. Though Mack cast compliance with his request as voluntary, his letters contradicted that notion. He wrote, \u201cIf voluntary compliance is not forthcoming,\u201d the state will seek to compel it.<\/p>\n \u201cInstitutions that ignore Secretary McMahon\u2019s call to action, or that offer only empty rhetoric, should not be surprised by additional statutory requirements, tighter performance expectations, heightened scrutiny of licensure conditions, or funding determinations calibrated to demonstrate seriousness,\u201d Mack wrote, noting that the state is approaching an upcoming legislative session.<\/p>\n