The Trump administration's Education Department sent warning letters to 60 universities under investigation for failing to protect Jewish students.
While Columbia lost $400 million in federal grants for letting pro-Hamas mobs take over campus, Florida's Jewish students were reporting harassment at roughly half the national rate.
Now the last budget Ron DeSantis will ever sign decides whether that difference survives.
Seven Years of Putting Money Behind the Words
Ron DeSantis didn't wait for a crisis to act.
In 2019, he held the first-ever overseas Florida Cabinet meeting – in Israel – and signed the nation's first law rooting antisemitism out of public schools.
In 2023, he flew back to Jerusalem and signed the toughest antisemitism statute in the country, making it a felony to harass people based on their religion or ethnicity.
In 2024, Florida wrote the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism into state law on a near-unanimous bipartisan vote.
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That same year, the Legislature put $20 million toward hardening Jewish institutions – on top of $25 million the year before that reached 134 schools.
In 2025, DeSantis funded a first-of-its-kind pilot at three Florida universities showing how a campus can protect Jewish students while preserving free speech.
The results show up in the numbers.
What's Sitting on His Desk Right Now
The Florida Legislature just delivered the FY 2026-27 budget – DeSantis's last – and it contains the Florida Hillel Jewish Student Safety Initiative.
Carried by Sen. Alexis Calatayud and Rep. Allison Tant, the measure would extend proven security upgrades to seven universities: the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of South Florida, Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Central Florida, and the University of Miami.
It would also fund the harder work – building campus cultures where Jewish students aren't singled out in the first place.
The same budget carries line items for Jewish day school security, funding for Florida's Holocaust museums, and University of Florida research into how law enforcement should investigate and prosecute hate crimes.
If DeSantis signs it, Florida becomes the first state to implement a large-scale, data-driven program explicitly targeting Jewish student safety at the college level.
Brian Pelc, executive director of Hillel at FSU, described the contrast plainly: Jewish communities in Florida receive support from public institutions and state leaders "far beyond what peers experience in other parts of the country."
The Country DeSantis Built Florida to Be the Exception To
While DeSantis spent seven years building this record, university administrators everywhere else were writing diversity statements and watching Jewish kids get chased off campus.
Sixty universities are now under federal investigation for Title VI violations – meaning their administrations allowed anti-Jewish discrimination to happen on their watch and did nothing.
Columbia's failures were so severe the Trump administration cancelled $400 million in federal grants to force action.
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Education Secretary Linda McMahon was blunt: "University leaders must do better."
They didn't. DeSantis did.
Term limits mean DeSantis doesn't get another budget.
The pen he picks up to sign the General Appropriations Act is the same one that writes the final chapter on a legacy built one law at a time, one signed-in-Jerusalem bill at a time, one pro-Hamas encampment cleared at a time.
Some Republicans in Tallahassee apparently think the Jewish safety work was a phase – that the money spent protecting Jewish families from neo-Nazis and Hamas sympathizers is now someone else's problem.
They're wrong, and DeSantis knows it.
This measure isn't charity – it's the continuation of a proven strategy that made Florida the destination Jewish families chose when Columbia, Minnesota, and Cal Poly failed them.
Seven years of groundwork, $45 million already invested, a documented safety advantage – and the only question left is whether the last signature matches all the ones that came before it.
Sources:
- Executive Office of the Governor, "Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation in Israel Further Combatting Antisemitism," flgov.com, April 28, 2023.
- Jesse Scheckner, "Gov. DeSantis OKs adding definition of antisemitism to Florida law," Florida Politics, June 24, 2024.
- JNS Staff, "DeSantis signs into law bills on antisemitism, Jewish school security," JNS.org, June 25, 2024.
- U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, "OCR Sends Letters to 60 Universities Under Investigation for Antisemitic Discrimination and Harassment," ed.gov, January 2026.
- Florida Phoenix, "Florida lawmakers send 2026-27 budget to DeSantis," floridaphoenix.com, June 23, 2026.
- Florida Institute of CPAs, "Legislative Update: Legislature passes state budget during Special Session," ficpa.org, June 2026.
