It’s not hyperbole to say Florida has declared war on the social sciences – and part of that war involves targeting the public-sector unions fighting to preserve academic freedom.

In 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed what was known as the Stop WOKE Act, later renamed the Individual Freedom Act. The legislation included numerous problematic provisions; most relevant to this discussion, it specifically restricted advocacy of educational theories perceived as discriminatory — notably, topics typically discussed in Sociology like critical race theory and intersectionality. In 2024, Florida’s Board of Governors, under the direction of DeSantis, removed Sociology as a core curriculum requirement, and a year later, the board removed hundreds of additional classes that touched on race and gender. Despite pushback from university faculty, the board authorized a new framework in summer 2025 for Sociology courses, along with an accompanying textbook that excluded chapters on social stratification, race and ethnicity, and gender, sex, and sexuality. Then last month the board escalated the conflict, effectively killing “Introduction to Sociology” at the state’s 12 public universities. 

A bright spot in the back-and-forth battle between the state and faculty has been public-sector unions, which have been pushing back against the Board of Governors at every step. Faculty at the state’s 12 public universities are represented by United Faculty of Florida, which has stood up to the Board of Governors. In February, UFF adopted a resolution “to publicly defend all instructors who are disciplined for teaching according to their disciplinary expertise in Florida public university and college classrooms.” 

Florida’s response? SB 1296. 

The bill, which has already made its way to the governor’s desk, proposes changes to the state’s Public Employees Relations Commission that make it harder for unions to organize. One provision requires 50 percent of all eligible employees — not just those who vote — in a bargaining unit to support certification. 

Of course, this isn’t the first time Florida – the nation’s first ‘right-to-work” state –  has attacked public-sector unions. In 2023, Florida passed SB 256, which mandated that workers could opt out of union membership while simultaneously requiring 60 percent of a bargaining unit’s eligible members to pay dues. The impact has already been significant: as of last year, approximately 69,000 workers have seen their union representation vanish following the decertification of over 100 public-sector bargaining units. Naturally, police and firefighter unions, which have historically supported the state’s Republicans, were exempt from SB 256 and will be exempt from SB 1296.

As others have noted, these bills are attacks on teachers’ unions, aimed at controlling education and suppressing academic freedom. Faculty members across Florida’s 12 public universities, many of whom are worried about speaking out for fear of retaliation, have expressed that state-led initiatives have hindered their obligations to provide factual instruction and to teach diverse perspectives and challenging concepts. Sociology has been targeted specifically for its focus on inequality and the discipline’s idea that problems individuals face daily, like poverty and racism, are symptoms of larger public issues. Noted sociologist C. Wright Mills wrote about the sociological imagination, which is the ability of individuals to see the connection between their personal lives and the broader historical and social forces that shape them. That means acknowledging and challenging harmful social dynamics rather than ignoring them, and that happens through collective action. 

There’s a reason why Sociology was eliminated from public institutions in Germany and Poland during World War II. Authoritarianism involves the state usurping power from the people, a control that inevitably encompasses unions, culture, and education. It’s no exaggeration to say the current political climate in Florida represents one of the most significant authoritarian projects unfolding in the US.

What’s happening in Florida transcends “wokeism” or labor; it’s an attack on democratic structures that allow citizens to challenge harmful social dynamics, state overreach, and historical forces. The antidote to authoritarianism is collective action, which means supporting unions and teachers. The Sunshine State and its policymakers are relentlessly working to erode democracy, and the people need to push back.