Everyone is afraid': Extent of brain drain shocks as DeSantis' effect on Florida revealed

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.rawstory.com/everyone-is-afraid-extent-of-brain-drain-shocks-as-desantis-effect-on-florida-revealed/#cxrecs_s

Everyone is afraid': Extent of brain drain shocks as DeSantis' effect on Florida revealed

In a Faculty in the South survey conducted by various conferences of the American Association of University Professors, 31% of Florida respondents said they have applied for a job outside of Florida since 2023. That number was 25% among all survey respondents in the South.

The same, 31% of Florida respondents, said they plan to seek employment in another state during the next hiring cycle.

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“Students report any classroom discussion they don’t like directly to the Governor’s office. Everyone is afraid all the time,” one woman teaching at a public four-year school wrote. “I have stopped teaching books that might be in any way controversial. I don’t open up general discussion in class but ask only direct questions that will elicit non-controversial answers. I need health insurance so I can’t just quit.”

“Most of the courses I’ve taught for decades now violate state and university mandates,” a man teaching at a Florida tier-one research university said.

As of earlier this year, Florida institutions’ general education courses no longer contained “indoctrinating concepts,” State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues proclaimed in January.

[Biophilic]

1. Now this, this is one of the things that's scary crazy about Florida.

Can you imagine the future of a state where the highest educated people are either afraid to think outside the box or too stupid to.

[GiqueCee]

2. Republicans are always squealing...

... about Liberal "INDOCTRINATION", when THEY are the absolute worst Thought Police that Satan ever defecated.
We cannot allow these evil monsters to succeed in destroying democracy and everything else that once made this country great.

[PatSeg]

14. Yes, they're not anti "indoctrination"

as long as they are the ones doing the indoctrinating. The same as their idea of freedom of speech, everything is subjective with these people.

[BadgerMom]

32. So, so many examples of Republican dishonesty.

“Democrats are using judicial activism.” Nope. Just look at The Federalist Society and its effect on today’s Supreme Court.

“The press has a liberal bias.” Oh, puh-leeze. There is no counterpoint to OANN, Fox, right wing radio.

“Voting isn’t fair.” Republicans gerrymander, buy Dominion Voting Systems and are doing their best to dismantle the VRA.

Republicans are racist, misogynistic, authoritarian SOBs. I’ve lived my life with their dishonesty and lies. This is where it’s obviously led all along.

[Timeflyer]

3. Families with young children are seriously questioning raising their kids here because of the attacks

on individual rights, the planned bankruptcy and privatization of public education, and the MAGA atmosphere. Plus--rising sea levels have caught the attention of property insurance firms--they know climate change is real and don't/can't deny it like GOP politicians.

[barbtries]

6. i don't even want to visit,

let alone raise a child there. true for most of the deep South states at this point.

hard enough living in NC, which although it is truly a purple state, has been all but alabama-fied by republicans.

?si=4vipm-CqdNuM04EC

California...

[Timeflyer]

8. Don't blame you one bit.

[dickthegrouch]

34. I even set avoid Miami and DFW flags on my travel arrangements.

I’d rather fly to Panama City than Miami to get to most international places from California if there’s no direct flight.

I won’t willingly go to Florida or Texas ever again.

[llmart]

44. I used to live in NC...

and thought about visiting this year, but decided not to for many reasons, but mainly because I would rather spend my money in New England.

[Easterncedar]

4. How did it all collapse so fast?

[Cosmocat]

11. It hasn't been fast at all

I saw this coming as a younger person way back in the early 90s.

This country has had dozens of free and fair elections over that time where republicans were gaslighting extremists who were wrong an 99% of the issues, and this country has indulged them more than not nearly every time.

[barbtries]

5. i don't think I'll ever understand

how de santis got away with his fascist takeover of Florida. I'm sorry for all the thinking people who live there.

[llmart]

45. My son is a NASA engineer.

He's lived there about 12 years. His job is the only reason he lives there. He has started looking outside of the state for his next job and recruiters are now contacting him. He wants to stay long enough to see Artemis II successfully launched, that is if he doesn't get let go in the next round of layoffs.

[bronxiteforever]

7. Floridians will drink of this stupidity for generations

Last edited Wed Oct 15, 2025, 10:04 AM - Edit history (1)

Florida has joined the race to the bottom.

[newdeal2]

10. These students are going to be so ignorant

The perfect vehicle for MAGA indoctrination. Hopefully at some point in their early lives they’ll snap out of it.

[Rebl2]

26. Exactly

[Iris]

9. Make no mistake. DeSatan's children will not be attending a public university in FL

[dalton99a]

23. +1

[nwduke]

12. Make Florida Stupid

Again! They me be giving Oklahoma a run for their money to get the 50th most stupid state in the Union! Though, there are a lot of southern states vying for the slot!

[Seinan Sensei]

13. "I don't open up general discussion in class ..."

Words fail me
😞

[NNadir]

15. It's rather tragic that an important scientific asset is located in that antiscience hellhole.

It's the national mag lab.

The rebuke effort to destroy American science will not be easily reversed.

[FakeNoose]

16. Ron DeSantis is term-limited, am I right?

He's already in his 2nd term, and it will end in 2028. What he does after that is nobody's business, but it should not affect the future careers of Florida's college professors. One would hope ....

[Biophilic]

18. Well, yes, but... They are working on Mrs. Desantis and there is always the Florida legislature.

DeSantis isn't Florida's only problem.

[rubbersole]

22. Casey DeSantis isn't the scariest candidate.

Rick Scott started the downward spiral of the governor's office. Corporate/Wall St interests have been running policy decisions for over a decade. Nobody even tries to hide any of it.

[allegorical oracle]

43. Jeb Bush gets my vote for opening Fla's RW Pandora's box, when Katherine

Harris messed with the Bush-v-Gore 2000 election. All the governors since 2000 have been weak, ignorant about the state's needs, or outright crooked. What stymied me was that several of my longtime friends -- educated, intelligent folks -- voted for him.

[angrychair]

24. Isn't she under investigation?

Something about redirecting Medicaid funds or something?

[NNadir]

30. Yes. However Republicans, from the Supreme Court on down have no respect for law.

They all consider themselves above the law which they effectively are, given the fall of our democracy and entry into a highly corrupt one party state.

[Greybnk48]

17. They're paying for University degrees at what are now watered down Mickey Mouse colleges.

Doesn't everyone understand that those degrees will be looked at as tainted? People in academia are well connected and up on this sort of censorship and lack of content. I would imagine important employers are too.

[Martin Eden]

19. Florida is "indoctrinating" students to be close minded fools

Useful idiots for Christofascist tyranny.

[littlemissmartypants]

20. The good news: ...

The lion's share of the state will eventually be under water eventually.

How Long Before All of Florida Is Underwater?
Published Nov 03, 2017 at 11:35 AM EDT

At the rate the world is headed now, hundreds of millions of people living on coasts may watch their cities flood with waters rising two meters by 2100. Global temperatures are expected to rise 3 degrees Celsius, the United Nations announced on Tuesday.

Under that prediction, Miami along with the bottom third of Florida would be entirely underwater, according to data from Climate Central analyzed by The Guardian. Cities including Shanghai, Alexandria, Rio, and Osaka are among those that would be affected the most.

But when will it happen? That all depends on how quickly polar and glacier ice will melt.
...
https://www.newsweek.com/how-long-all-florida-underwater-700835

[rubbersole]

25. Flooding will be refreshing compared to what happens...

..when the currents of the Gulf Stream stop flowing. Preceding the death of the oceans. But, climate science is fake and pro wrestling is real. And tsf "tells it like it is".

[flvegan]

21. Stampeding towards Idiocracy. n/t

[flashman13]

27. No "indoctrinating concepts," like critical thinking, facts and actual history. Both boring and stupefying.

[Joinfortmill]

28. We need a deep purge of our government....

Anyone who voted for Trump made the worst mistake of their life for themselves and everyone else. I don't have many in my life, thank God.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

29. The sine wave of history is swinging towards another trough. Since the dawn of humans--sapiens at least--it has...

...gone like this: religion dominates the human psyche until a problem like fertility, obtaining food, weather events, etc., cannot be overcome by mere rituals. The humans use what we would call science today to mitigate said problem. With the problem at least mitigated to some extent the human psyche turns once again to religion until another problem like attacks from other humans and previously unknown disease come along.

This cycle has repeated itself in innumerable places across time and in a myriad of ways. Science is inevitably the victim of its own success time and time again.

With the incredible scientific acceleration of the 20th century--going from horse-drawn carriages in 1900 to landing a man on the moon a mere 69 years later--there was great reason to be optimistic that our scientific brain would finally put aside our religious one and favor logic over mythology.

Florida illustrates how far we are from that reality. While the religious sleep soundly knowing that science is there to rescue them from catastrophe, the next crisis--as always--is just over the horizon. At some point religion may just find a way to undermine science enough that overcoming it will not be possible.

The incredible irony of religious people using science to burn fossil fuels while ignoring the science of climate change and potentially hurtling the planet into a dire situation that cannot possibly be solved through science is just astounding--but here we are. And Floridians have as much or more to lose in the short-term than almost anyone. SMH.

[Mblaze]

31. America's true history

Is now considered to be an "indoctrinating concept".

[mercuryblues]

33. I once had a boss who told me the #1 reason he hired me was

because of the state I grew up in. He knew I had a better than average education.

I see the same thing for Florida in 10 years, only opposite. They will not be able to find decent jobs in many states, because of their edumacation. (Misspelling intentional)

[struggle4progress]

35. "Lying on the beach during a hurricane cures COVID!"

[soldierant]

36. Elect a serial killer

expect corpses.

[Xolodno]

37. Side effect, with the lack of competent talent...

...companies will not relocate nor expand there. The ramifications aren't over.

[Pacifist Patriot]

38. It's universities+

My husband and I moved to Virginia a couple of months ago after 31 years in Florida.

My daughter, a grad student at FSU, is now in Massachusetts rather than continue her course work in Florida.

The brain drain is killing academia but also impacting every industry you can imagine.

Communities are losing the people who engage with leadership positions in volunteer organizations. That last point is being overlooked and will have major impact.

[AverageJoe]

39. I teach at a southern flagship university

I’ve been here more than 20 years. Last year a graduate student — yes, a graduate student — reported me to the provost just for teaching my class the way I’ve always taught it, and both state law and university policy were on their side, not mine. I live in fear of my students now and it is intolerable.

I need to work about three and a half more years and I am counting the seconds.

[róisín_dubh]

42. I resigned...

I’m a historian and teach on Latin America (gender, Indigenous peoples, human rights). I left a few years ago with tenure because it was clear I’d have no funding for research, I was basically wanted as a teaching monkey (as the only expert in LatAm history in the whole university, I was teaching ancient fucking Egypt…) and the political winds in my state were concerning.
So I torpedoed my career before some student or bureaucrat could force me out.
Also guns on campus were about to be legalised, so that was my sign to exit. I moved abroad and took a stupidly low paying job for which I’m wildly overqualified, but at least the other parts of my life are nice.

[AverageJoe]

46. I sincerely envy you

I got started on things late in life. I’m sixty-six with a child who is a senior in high school. I have to keep my job both for the income and the health insurance. Otherwise, I would have resigned when my state passed laws on what we can teach or even voice our opinions on.

[Jack Valentino]

40. It was perhaps a MISTAKE that General Sherman did not march through Florida---

they never felt the full effects of their rebellion against the United States,
and then the majority of them later became Republicans....

[Aussie105]

41. De Santis: Pol Pot reincarnated?

The Cambodian genocide - if you don't know, check your 'library' - ie Wikipedia and Google.

3 million died, high on the list were teachers and professors.

History was to disappear, Year Zero was the start.