Must Reads June 2025

More Books Are Pulled From Hillsborough Classrooms

      Stephana Ferrell, co-director of the Florida Freedom to Read advocacy group, estimates around 622 titles were pulled out of circulation as a result of the state’s recent directive.     She called it “a horrible state overreach.”Until now, Hillsborough County has had a process in place to review objections to materials originating at the school level. “It is very scary, the amount of power that they are using to just completely negate the voice of the people — the people that have actually taken the time to thoughtfully review, reread the books, review them, debate them, discuss them and come to a decision about where they believe the books to be appropriate, if they’ve decided to leave the books within their community,” she said.

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Conservative Control of Florida Colleges Continues

     The ongoing effort to turn Florida’s higher education system in a new conservative direction took another step forward Tuesday at one of the state’s 28 state colleges.    Eric Hall, secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice, was named interim president at Pasco-Hernando State College — with the possibility open for him to get the permanent position at the college’s next trustees meeting.      Hall joins several Republican leaders with ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis in assuming leadership over higher education institutions across Florida. Other recent additions include former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez at Florida International and former State Board of Education chairperson Marva Johnson at Florida A&M, Former state legislator Richard Corcoran at New College.

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