SB 970 — Florida Educational Freedoms Act

• Grants faculty at state universities and Florida College System institutions the right to engage in collective bargaining on employment terms and to resolve contractual disputes through third-party neutral arbitration
• Requires the Board of Governors and State Board of Education to ensure public postsecondary institutions are free from political influence in academic affairs and have autonomy to design and implement diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs on their campuses
• Removes the existing prohibition on using state or federal funds to advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion at public colleges and universities, while retaining the ban on funding political or social activism
• Grants non-tenure track faculty at both state universities and Florida College System institutions access to continuing contracts with due process protections equivalent to those of tenured faculty, and guarantees faculty the right to negotiate annual assignments free from governing board interference
• Requires district school boards to ensure students and personnel are not subject to compulsory ideological training, compelled speech, or censorship, and grants K-12 students and parents the right not to be recorded or surveilled in classrooms without express consent