“Classical” education is all over the news, as Florida governor Ron DeSantis pursues his shock-and-awe campaign to remake Florida’s public colleges and universities in the image of Michigan-based Hillsdale College. This classical Christian liberal arts school, which has become one of the most influential centers of right-wing thought in recent years, has been working assiduously to transform the political landscape of the United States by upending our public education systems — much as DeSantis has been doing in Florida.

After banning the original version of a high-school course in Advanced Placement African American Studies and resolving to cut off funding for college Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the likely presidential candidate announced plans to mandate coursework in “Western civilization” across Florida’s public higher education system. DeSantis also pledged to empower university officials to review faculty tenure “at any time” — an intimidation tactic clearly targeted at educators who would foster discussions of American racism, LGBTQ issues, and other so-called “woke” topics.

DeSantis’s appointment of six of his allies to the board of trustees of the New College of Florida has transfigured what was previously a safe haven for marginalized identities and progressive ideas. The new board, which includes Hillsdale College professor and dean Matthew Spalding and anti-woke culture warrior Chris Rufo, fired the college’s president at the end of January in a raucous display of political overreach, replacing her (for now) with incoming interim president Richard Corcoran — a DeSantis loyalist who, as Florida’s education commissioner, invited Hillsdale (producer of the jingoistic, anti-historical 1776 Curriculum) to overhaul Florida’s K-12 civics guidelines. Under DeSantis, Florida has passed legislation limiting how schools can talk about gender, sexual orientation, race, and US history.