Florida House to vote on bill that would ban ‘political loyalty tests’ in higher education | Florida News | Orlando

The Florida House is poised to vote on a bill that seeks to prevent colleges and universities from requiring employees and students to complete “political loyalty” tests as a condition of employment or admission.

The bill (HB 931) defines such tests as “compelling, requiring, or soliciting a person to identify commitment to or to make a statement of personal belief in support” of such things as a specific “partisan, political, or ideological set of beliefs.”

The measure also would prohibit loyalty tests based on any “ideology or movement that promotes the differential treatment of a person or a group of persons based on race or ethnicity, including an initiative or a formulation of diversity, equity, and inclusion” beyond upholding the Constitution.

Bill sponsor Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, pointed to what he said were examples of loyalty tests used by the University of Florida and Florida Atlantic University medical schools.

A House staff analysis said the FAU school, for example, asked applicants a question that would have been prohibited under the bill.

“As a future medical student at FAU, how can you play an active role in addressing and dismantling systemic racism?” the application said.

The bill also would deal with public speakers at universities, including by requiring each school to establish an “Office of Public Policy Events.”

The offices would have to organize and publicize debates or group forums that “address, from multiple, divergent, and opposing perspectives, an extensive range of public policy issues widely discussed and debated in society at large.”

The House could vote on the bill Wednesday. The Senate Fiscal Policy Committee on Tuesday approved a similar bill (SB 958), which is now ready to go to the full Senate.