Concerns over shrinking required core college courses

Senate Bill 266 passed in May 2023, which prevents colleges from spending on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, has resulted in causing the list of classes needed to graduate to shrink.

Now, sociology classes have been removed from the list of required core courses needed for students to graduate, impacting 28 Florida colleges.

WINK News spoke with Florida Southwestern University Professor Ruben Olguin about how this law will hurt students in the long run.

“One of the big fears is that education is going to radicalize students or education is going to make students ‘woke,'” said Olguin. “I think that’s the problem: is that students, like people, need to be exposed to different things. We need to have and see other people to understand ourselves better.”

To counter Olguin’s argument, a Florida Education Commissioner said students need to be focused on learning about the truth about our country rather than sociology.

An Introductory survey to 1877 will be added as a core requirement over sociology.

Supporters of the bill say that students can still take sociology; it just won’t count toward their degree.

Olguin’s response to that statement reflects the underlying issue with the course removal.

“If they take classes outside of that, then they lose their progress towards degree,” said Olguin. “It could potentially affect their financial aid, and it could also affect their ability to participate in other things within the institution.”

This rule affects both Florida state and community colleges; however, the Florida Board of Governors has already introduced similar regulations for the state university system.