ETF Summary

Decades before the Supreme Court caused an uproar last week by rejecting affirmative action in higher education, the state of Florida unilaterally banned the use of race as a factor in college admissions, potentially providing an instructive forecast of what to expect in other parts of the country moving forward.

The Supreme Court ended affirmative action in a landmark 6-3 decision last Thursday. The case combined lawsuits brought against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina with the student activist group Students for Fair Admissions, arguing that the schools’ admissions programs discriminated against Asian applicants in violation of, respectively, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

‘A benefit to a student whose herit­age or culture motivated him or her to assume a leadership role or attain a particular goal must be tied to that student’s unique ability to contribute to the university,’ Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court’s majority opinion.

In other words, the student must be treated based on his or her ex­periences as an individual — not on the basis of race.

‘Many universities have for too long done just the oppo­site,’ Roberts added. ‘And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.’

Liberals from various media outlets and Democrats in Congress slammed the ruling as discriminatory, with some commentators attacking Asian Americans as tools of White people and even White supremacists themselves.

Many Republicans expressed support for the Supreme Court’s decision, including Florida Gov. and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, who touted the Sunshine State’s own approach to affirmative action when asked about the ruling.

‘Florida was one of the first states in the nation to ban race and gender preferences in college admissions. We are proud to have a system based on merit instead of woke politics,’ a DeSantis spokesperson told local ABC affiliate WPBF 25.

The Florida Board of Governors, the governing body for the State University System of Florida that includes all public universities in the state, also praised the decision, similarly noting the decision from years ago to prohibit the use of race as a factor in college admissions.

‘The U.S. Supreme Court issued a historic ruling declaring affirmative action in college admissions unconstitutional. This decision will have no impact on the State University System of Florida,’ the board said in a statement.

‘The Free State of Florida has not utilized affirmative action in our higher education system since the One Florida Initiative in 1999,’ the board added. ‘The State University System of Florida provides students equality of opportunity through color-blind admissions. In addition to being the No. 1 state in the nation for higher education, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report since 2017, Florida also has one of the most diverse systems in the country. Florida is proof that diversity can be achieved without affirmative action.’

In 1999, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed an executive order known as the ‘One Florida’ initiative, which was billed as an effort to increase diversity in the state without using discriminatory practices.

Among other measures, the order banned ‘racial or gender set-asides, preferences, or quotas’ in state hiring, contracting and public university admissions. Race-based university admissions were replaced with a program that guarantees admission into one of Florida’s public universities for students who graduate from high school in the top 20% of their class, irrespective of their race.

According to the Florida Board of Governors’ admissions regulations, all Florida universities must not include preferences based on ‘race [or] color’ during the admissions process.

Overall representation of Black and Hispanic students at Florida’s public universities declined relative to population in the years immediately following the implementation of One Florida, but not everywhere. Some schools, such as the University of Florida, made gains in Black and Hispanic representation. More recently, however, the gap has widened between Black and Hispanic students and their White counterparts.

Critics of One Florida and proponents of affirmative action have especially pointed to the fact that the share of Black and Hispanic college students has decreased relative to their respective populations of high school seniors.

According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, for example, 23% of Florida public high school seniors were Black in 1999, and 18% of undergraduate university freshmen were Black. Eight years later, 22% of high school seniors were Black, but the share of freshmen had dipped to 15%, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

However, that decline was primarily driven by falling enrollment at Florida A&M University, the state’s historically Black public university. At most of Florida’s other public universities, the share of Black students actually increased. 

For example, the University of Florida, which boasts the state’s most rigorous admission standards, saw its share of Black students increase from 11% to 14% from 1999 to 2007. Meanwhile, the overall share of Black undergraduates spiked from 7% to 10%.

Some schools, such as Florida State University, experienced a slight dip in Black enrollment over the first decade in which race-conscious admissions were banned. 

More recently, from 2010 to 2021, Black and Hispanic students have become more underrepresented at Florida’s elite universities, according to National Center for Education Statistics data.

In the spring of 2021, 21% of seniors from Florida public high schools were Black. That fall, they made up just 10% of freshmen at one of Florida’s 12 public universities.

Proponents of affirmative action point to such trends as evidence that schools need to consider race in admissions to be fair and realize equality. Others who support the recent Supreme Court decision counter that true equality can only be found in a color-blind society, fluctuations are to be expected as par for the course and the overall result in Florida’s education system undermines the notion of any form of systemic exclusion in admissions based on race.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked Florida as the No. 1 state in the country for higher education every year since 2017, including this year. Florida officials have praised their top spot as a sign of the strength of their education system, while critics downplay the result, arguing U.S. News & World Report’s rankings are using flawed metrics that don’t paint an accurate picture of the education landscape.

Regardless of the rankings, Florida’s top-ranked university says it considers several factors when evaluating a candidate for admission, but race isn’t one of them. 

‘The University of Florida adheres to non-discrimination practices in admissions, and we do not consider race as a factor in our admissions decisions,’ Cynthia Roldán, the school’s director of strategic communications, said in a statement following the Supreme Court decision. 

‘We are guided by a comprehensive, holistic review process that evaluates the academic and nonacademic criteria of applicants, in addition to requirements under federal and state laws as well as the Florida Board of Governors’ regulations.’

In 1999, when One Florida was signed, 69% of freshmen students at the University of Florida were in the top 10% of their graduating class, according to university data and an analysis by the Tampa Bay Times. That number climbed to 82% by 2020, indicating Florida schools are becoming increasingly competitive.  

Florida also plans to extend its emphasis on non-race-based admissions decisions ‘even further’ beyond just affirmative action, according to DeSantis.

‘We have eliminated ‘DEI’ from our public universities,’ DeSantis said Friday while addressing a Moms for Liberty convention in Philadelphia. ‘They say it’s ‘diversity, equity and inclusion.’ But the way it’s practiced, it’s ideology imposed on the institution.’

Over the weekend, a new Florida law recently signed by DeSantis began taking effect that prohibits colleges and universities from spending state or federal money to promote, support or maintain programs that ‘advocate for’ diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI]. Under the law, schools can’t spend money on programs or activities that ‘promote or engage in political or social activism’ as defined by the State Board of Education or the Board of Governors.

Florida isn’t alone in banning the consideration of race in college admissions. Texas, Michigan, Washington and California are among the small number of other states that have done the same.

As for California, supporters of race-conscious admissions point to studies showing the gap between the share of high school graduates who were Black and the share of college freshmen who were Black quadrupled from 1994 to 2009. Others counter by citing data indicating race-blind admissions led to higher grades and fewer dropouts at colleges and universities.

In Texas, meanwhile, Black enrollment at the University of Texas at Austin dropped significantly in 1997, when the state banned race-based criteria, according to a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights analysis.

However, that share recovered to about where it was before the ban once Texas implemented a plan similar to Florida’s guaranteeing admission for high schoolers in the top 20% of their class. The Texas version guaranteed admission for the top 10% of each high school’s graduating class.

According to the commission’s analysis, however, admissions for Black and Hispanic students outside that 10% decreased.

EXCLUSIVE: Several GOP lawmakers are accusing Hollywood of once again acquiescing to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the ‘Barbie’ movie’s reported inclusion of a map that appears to endorse Beijing’s dominance of the South China Sea.

‘While it may just be a Barbie map in a Barbie world, the fact that a cartoonish, crayon-scribbled map seems to go out of its way to depict [China’s] unlawful territorial claims illustrates the pressure that Hollywood is under to please CCP censors,’ Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the House select committee on China, told Fox News Digital.

The upcoming summer blockbuster starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling has found itself in the middle of one of today’s most heated geopolitical disputes. 

Vietnamese officials announced the Warner Bros. film would be banned within its borders over the inclusion of a map that purportedly supports China’s claim to vast parts of the South China Sea. Officials in the Philippines have signaled they could follow suit.

Gallagher called on Warner Bros. to speak out about the controversy to clarify ‘that the map was not intended to endorse any territorial claims and was, in fact, the work of a formerly plastic anthropomorphic doll.’

Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., accused the U.S. film industry of flagrant ‘hypocrisy’ for pandering to China’s vast audience while ignoring its troubling human rights record.

‘This is yet another disgraceful example of Hollywood being in the pocket of communist China. Not only does it undermine our national security, but exposes the film industry’s blatant hypocrisy on social justice and human rights,’ Waltz told Fox News Digital.

The boundary line shown on the map represents China’s claim to a vast section of the South China Sea, which is also being fought over by Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan. The map’s inclusion in ‘Barbie’ underscores the growing controversy over Hollywood’s reliance on China, which has rivaled the U.S. for its biggest market in recent years.

Critics of the movie industry have accused studio executives of ignoring Beijing’s human rights abuses for the sake of selling films there.

A GOP lawmaker who serves with Gallagher on the China committee, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., similarly accused studio heads of ‘carrying water’ for China’s various offenses.

‘We defeated the Soviet Union with Coke, Levi’s and James Dean. We need soft power superiority just as much as we need military superiority to win the new Cold War with China, and that’s impossible with Hollywood working alongside the Chinese Communist Party,’ Banks said. ‘Movie executives who carry water for the murderous communist regime are endangering our national security and must face consequences.’

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., called the ‘Barbie’ movie’s inclusion of the pro-China map wrong on a legal and moral level.

An international tribunal at The Hague did say China’s claims to vast portions of the South China Sea had no legal merit in 2016, but Beijing dismissed the ruling at the time.

‘Hollywood and the left are, once again, more concerned with selling films in communist China than standing up to the regime’s egregious human rights abuses,’ Blackburn said. ‘The ‘Barbie’ movie’s depiction of a map endorsing Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea is legally and morally wrong and must be taken seriously.’

MANCHESTER, N.H. – North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s far from a household name outside his home state.

And one month into his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Burgum is near the bottom of the field, registering at less than one percent in the most recent Fox News national poll in the GOP primary battle.

But the former software company CEO turned two-term governor of his native state seems far from concerned about his poll position with roughly six months to go until the start of the caucuses and primaries.

‘We don’t have to be leading today. We have to be ahead when the game starts next February,’ Burgum emphasized in a Fox Digital interview as he pointed to the start of the GOP presidential nominating calendar.

Burgum is concentrating his campaign efforts in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that for half a century have led off the Republican schedule. And Burgum, who’s one of the wealthiest candidates in the field of over a dozen GOP White House hopefuls – thanks to his tremendous success in the private sector – has already shelled out over $4 million of his own money to run ads in the two early voting states.

‘We’re very excited about where we are,’ Burgum said as he was interviewed in Manchester, N.H. ‘The reception in Iowa and New Hampshire has been great. And of course, we’re on ground. We’re up on TV and radio. We’re doing everything we can because we’ve got a great story to tell.’

Asked how much of his own money he’d invest into uphill climb towards the GOP nomination, Burgum wouldn’t give a dollar amount. But pointing to his business career, he said ‘I’ve never asked anyone to invest in what I’m doing unless I’m willing to put some skin in the game myself. And the same this on this.’

‘I’ll put dollars into this campaign to get it going,’ he noted before adding that ‘you can’t win races if you’re just trying to win races yourself. You can’t accomplish anything. It takes a whole team. We’re looking forward to running a fully funded campaign but that’s going to come from the people who care about America.’

Burgum is used to challenges. He steered his one-time small business, Great Plains Software, into a $1 billion software company. His business — and its North Dakota-based workers — were eventually acquired by Microsoft, and Burgum stayed on board as a senior vice president.

In 2016, the then first-time candidate and long shot convincingly topped a favored GOP establishment contender to secure the Republican nomination in North Dakota before going on to a landslide victory in the gubernatorial general election in the solidly red state. Burgum was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2020 to a second term as governor.

The upcoming Republican presidential primary debates – which kick off with a Fox News hosted showdown August 23 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – could help Burgum alter his campaign’s trajectory.

The governors said he’ll ‘absolutely’ make the stage by reaching the tall contributor and polling thresholds required by the Republican National Committee. ‘We’ll have the 40-thousand donors. We’ll meet that threshold. And we’ll have the polling. That’s a no brainer. We’ll be there.’

Burgum and the rest of the field remain far behind former President Donald Trump, who’s the commanding GOP front-runner as he makes his third straight White House run. While some rivals regularly take aim at Trump, Burgum avoids opportunities to blast the former president.

‘I think America’s talking too much about the past and not enough about the future,’ Burgum said, in a indirect slight at Trump’s many grievances he amplifies on the campaign trail and his repeated re-litigation of his 2020 election loss to President Biden. 

‘If we keep talking about the past, this is what the Democrats want because they love it when Republicans talk about the past and about each other,’ Burgum highlighted. ‘You know who else loves it? China loves it. Russia loves it. Our adversaries around the world love it when we do all this infighting. We’ve got to come together as a nation and solve problems. That’s what we’ll do when I’m president.’

The governor then quickly pivoted to blasting which he labeled as President Biden’s failed policies.

Burgum is focusing his presidential campaign on three issues — the economy, energy, and national security. And you don’t hear him talk too often about the culture wars and anti-woke crusades, which are front-and center in the presidential campaigns of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur and political commentator Vivek Ramaswamy.

‘Each campaign, each candidate, can talk about what they want to talk about. We’re talking about the things that we know are the things that affect Americans the most and they affect all Americans. That’s what we’re talking about. And we’re also talking about the things that the president’s actually supposed to do,’ Burgum spotlighted.

He emphasized that ‘there’s a limited set of things the federal government is supposed to do. There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president, as a celebrity, is supposed to weigh in in every local issue that could be solved by the library board, could be solved by the city council, could by solved by a township board, or it could be solved by the parents…We don’t have to have the government involved in every aspect of our lives.’

Burgum then stressed that ‘there’s things that we need to do, including national security which includes border security. These are things the federal government is supposed to do. The Biden administration’s literally not doing the job they were elected to do.’

Some Wisconsin Republican voters are losing faith in former President Trump as a new statewide poll showed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis beating him by 16 points in a head-to-head primary matchup.

Wisconsin state Sen. Duey Stroebel, a Republican, said the poll shows voters in the state are doubting Trump’s electability amid his recent indictment, while DeSantis has taken a ‘more common sense, level-headed approach’ on the campaign trail.

‘Trump, of course, did a great job as president, but DeSantis is very, very impressive,’ Stroebel told Fox News Digital. ‘And I think more and more people really are doubting Trump’s ability to win a general election, and I think these results kind of prove it.’

The Marquette University Law School Poll released last week showed Trump leading DeSantis by only one percentage point in the crowded GOP primary field. But when asked who they would vote for in a head-to-head matchup between DeSantis and Trump, respondents chose DeSantis over Trump by a whopping 57% to 41%. 

John Righeimer, chairman of the Republican Party of Sawyer County, Wisconsin, said he’s noticed much more enthusiasm for DeSantis than Trump in recent months.

‘We just don’t think he can win the general,’ Righeimer said of Trump during an interview with Fox News Digital. ‘I think the Democrats want to run against Trump. I think they know they can beat Trump. Joe Biden stayed in the basement and beat Trump, basically just because of the dislike for Trump.’ 

‘I don’t think Joe Biden can stay in the basement if someone like Ron DeSantis is running,’ he continued. ‘It will force the Democrats to have to come out and defend what they’re doing versus just hope that the undesirables for Trump is enough for them to carry themselves to victory.’

Stroebel, the state senator, argued that Trump has a tendency to take the more liberal position on issues like abortion, while DeSantis has been ‘pretty rock solid as a conservative.’

‘The people that are paying attention now are probably generally pretty serious observers, and when they look at the issues and the approach to those issues that DeSantis is taking versus Donald Trump, I think they’re seeing a distinct difference, frankly,’ he said.

‘I think it’s extremely important that we pick someone who can win,’ he continued. ‘And, you know, as much as Trump did a great job as president, there is a certain segment of this population that there’s just no way in hell they’re going to vote for Donald Trump. And I think without some of those people, we can’t win a general election with Donald Trump as our is our choice.’

Stroebel noted that the Marquette poll showed 21% of the respondents are ‘undecided’ on picking a Republican nominee.

‘I think it’s worth pointing out that if you’re undecided on a former U.S. president, I would think that would tend to favor someone else,’ Stroebel said. ‘And in this case, DeSantis is the person who’s basically running neck and neck. So I think you could probably say that the vast majority of those undecided voters would probably end up going to DeSantis.’

Wisconsin, which has 10 electoral votes in the Electoral College, is considered a crucial swing state in the 2024 presidential election, and the Marquette poll, which has been described as the ‘gold standard in Wisconsin politics,’ has a 80% accuracy rate, according to FiveThirtyEight.

In the poll, 68% of Republicans and independents who lean Republican said they view Trump favorably, followed by DeSantis at 67%, Pence at 52%, and Haley at 32%.

If the election were held today, with DeSantis being the Republican nominee against President Biden, it would be a pretty close race. Forty-nine percent said they would vote for Biden, with 47% saying the same for DeSantis.

As for an election rematch between Trump and Biden in 2024, a victory for Republicans is more bleak, according to the poll results. Fifty-two percent of respondents said they would vote for Biden, compared to 43% who said the same for Trump.

Fox News’ Kyle Morris contributed to this report.