Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas gives the commissioner’s update during a Jan. 21, 2026, Board of Education meeting at Tallahassee State College. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
The Florida Board of Education has removed sociology from the 28 state college general education lists, following the example of the 12 state universities.
Sociology no longer a general education course at Florida universities
Community colleges, often used as a stepping stone for eventual university students to gain general education credits, are now “fully aligned” with the universities, the Department of Education said.
“This action is necessary to protect the integrity of general education in Florida and to guarantee that every student receives a consistent, academically sound foundation no matter where they enroll. General education is not an experimental space for disciplines that cannot meet clearly defined academic standards,” Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said during the board’s Friday meeting in Naples.
The board unanimously approved eliminating lower division sociology courses from the general education course list.
Kamoutsas said students who have already taken the courses through this semester are grandfathered in.
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Universities
The board governing Florida’s universities voted less than a month ago to remove sociology as a general education offering, leaving it available as an elective course.
That decision to eliminate 1000- and 2000-level sociology courses from general education list for the next school year came after state rulemakers and faculty tugged back and forth over what a sociology curriculum would look like.
State lawmakers in recent years attacked certain concepts, putting in law that it is illegal to “distort significant historical events or include curriculum that teaches identity politics” in general education courses. Chief among the classes of lawmakers’ concern was sociology, which commonly teaches about race, gender, and sexuality.
The courses are still available as electives. However, as professors have argued before, removal from general education reduces enrollment, giving ground for a university to discontinue courses, majors, or departments.
No board members raised any objection to the decision.
There was concern from the university faculty representative when the decision was made for universities last month.
The Florida Board of Education does not have a faculty representative.
Background
The state recently developed, through a workgroup, its own sociology curriculum that complies with state law.
Inside Higher Ed reported that the state produced a “heavily edited version of an open-source sociology textbook.” The formulation of the curriculum was controversial, including Kamoutsas’ removal of a professor from the workgroup, the Miami Herald reported.
Professors from around the state took issue with that textbook, saying it omits core concepts of the discipline and is “sanitized.”