The DOGE movement is sweeping the country.
Waste, fraud, and abuse are being targeted at every level of government.
And Ron DeSantis revealed one major fight Florida’s DOGE is itching for.
Ron DeSantis targets colleges and universities with Florida’s DOGE
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have inspired states to trim wasteful spending.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced in February the creation of a state-level DOGE to make government as “lean and as efficient as possible.”
The top target for Florida’s DOGE is the state’s colleges and universities.
DeSantis highlighted woke classes that are heavy on indoctrination and light on education for being cut.
“There are certain subjects that, you know, look, if you want to do some of this — go to Cal Berkeley, go to some of these other places, we don’t really want to be doing some of this stuff in Florida,” DeSantis said. “We want to do the core, important subjects. Some of the ideological studies stuff, we just want to prune that and get that out.”
Florida banned diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives but higher education institutions tried to hide them under a different name.
“Let’s make sure that we’re having that, people read these course catalogs and they’re not wincing as to why the heck that would be in there with Florida tax dollars,” DeSantis stated.
DeSantis wants to use Florida’s DOGE to root them out and eliminate administrative bloat.
“There’s certain state policies that have been implemented, such as the abolition of DEI, which I know on a superficial level, the universities went and applied with,” DeSantis said.
He put colleges and universities that think they can ignore Florida’s laws on notice.
“But as we’ve seen, you know, you kind of burrow in and rename, do what you want,” DeSantis explained. “And there is some sense in some quarters that whatever the law in the state of Florida is, it just is not obligatory on them and they can kind of do their own little fiefdom. That’s not going to fly here.”
Public colleges are ground zero for government waste
The cost of college has exploded this century as schools hire unnecessary administrators and staff members.
DeSantis said that the administrations of Florida’s colleges and universities needed to be under the microscope.
“I think if you look nationwide over the past three decades or so, I’ve seen a massive increase in universities in administrative staff, huge increase,” DeSantis stated. “And it almost parallels the explosion of student loan money that’s gone out.”
Government-backed student loans allowed colleges to go on hiring sprees and spend lavishly on facilities, knowing the government would cover the loans to pay for it.
“And so we’ve asked, you know, look, how is Florida doing in that respect? How are we doing in terms of the bureaucracies and the administrative? Are we a well-oiled machine? Is there room for improvement?” DeSantis asked.
The growth of college bureaucracies went hand in hand with the rise of useless DEI administrators.
Belt-tightening at colleges and universities will save taxpayers money and help finally rid them of DEI.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
