This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a plan in early September 2025 that he intends to to end vaccine mandates across all schools and in other state-run institutions such as nursing homes.
His proposal would dismantle , which requires that all schools, including public and private schools, collect proof of students鈥� immunization for a range of communicable diseases when they enroll.
In 2025, approximately 88.7% of are vaccinated, which is almost 5% lower than the national average. 贵濒辞谤颈诲补鈥檚 rate of vaccination for kindergarten students has steadily declined over the 鈥� and dropped from 93.5% in 2020 to .
If Florida state legislators approve DeSantis鈥� plan when they convene in January 2026, the state would sweepingly eliminate long-standing obligations for schools and other places to require a standard set of immunizations for enrollment. Florida nursing homes currently assess whether residents should receive pneumococcal and .
As , I study how education policy shapes democracy, social cohesion and inequality. I am also a .
DeSantis鈥� plan is indicative of 贵濒辞谤颈诲补鈥檚 general approach to approve education policy that is aligned with on 鈥渨oke politics鈥� and culture war issues, .
Other Republican-led states, such as , and , are typically quick to follow 贵濒辞谤颈诲补鈥檚 lead and implement their own versions of 贵濒辞谤颈诲补鈥檚 educational and social policies.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks after he signed three education bills in Sarasota, Fla., in May 2023.
Florida setting examples
Well before DeSantis, Florida has tried to be a national leader of educational reform and has tightened state control over schools by reshaping standards on testing, school curricula and guidance on what can and cannot be taught in public schools.
贵濒辞谤颈诲补鈥檚 former Gov. , helped lead this educational reform work. He was steadfast in increasing top-down accountability for educators, closely monitoring their performance by increasing high-stakes testing and tying to test results.
Bush also widely promoted policies to for parents or policies that often allow any parent 鈥� regardless of income 鈥� to apply for state grants that use public money to pay for their children鈥檚 private school education.
Public school enrollment has in Florida over the past two decades. While 86% of Florida students attended a traditional public school in 2001-2002, just 51% of Florida children went to a .
In 2022, Arizona to adopt a universal voucher system.
Florida then in 2023 鈥� allowing all parents, regardless of income, to use state taxpayer-funded scholarships to help pay for their children鈥檚 private school or home school experience. More than received these vouchers in 2025.
Since 2024, plus Washington D.C. have adopted voucher programs.
Critical race theory on the front line
Since taking office in 2018, DeSantis has also set his sights squarely upon other hot-button issues, including from public schools in 2021.
Critical race theory, or CRT, is an academic framework that looks at how different forms of marginalization, such as gender or race, overlap, as well as how racism is embedded within American institutional and legal structures. DeSantis has said that 鈥渟tate-sanctioned racism鈥� that teaches 鈥渒ids to hate our country or to hate each other.鈥�
on education considered this ban on CRT largely symbolic. The likelihood that K-12 educators are trained in CRT to then teach it to students seemed remote.
That same year, Florida rejected that officials felt contained CRT-related subject matter.
In 2023, DeSantis also cited CRT when he blocked Florida from offering the nonprofit College Board鈥檚 newly developed course from public schools.
These actions made Florida one of the first states to place formal policy restrictions on CRT, effectively prohibiting and inequality in public schools.
Since 2021, 44 other states have . Approximately 28 states, including Texas, Idaho, Tennessee and Montana, have of racism and sexism.
Anti-LGBTQ+ measures
In 2022, Florida also became the first state to prohibit classroom instruction on sexuality or gender identity topics from kindergarten through third grade. This law 鈥� formally called the but often referred to as 鈥溾�� 鈥� also restricts discussion on these topics in higher grades.
Though the law restricts formal classroom discussion or curriculum on sexuality and gender identity, teachers are allowed to discuss these topics in , such as student gay and straight alliance clubs.
By 2024, a growing list of at least 20 states, including Alabama and Indiana, followed Florida and 鈥淒on鈥檛 Say Gay.鈥�
A bookstore in Coral Gables, Fla., shows a list of banned books in 2022.
Book bans
Book bans are another prominent front where DeSantis has influenced how education looks in Florida 鈥� and in other states.
Book bans refer to schools and libraries removing books that are deemed controversial or inappropriate for students, often flagged for content related to race, sexuality or gender.
In 2023, Florida called HB 1069, which, among other things, banned books primarily by parents or education officials for discussing or mentioning sexual topics.
One of these banned books was 鈥�,鈥� a children鈥檚 picture book based on the animated PBS children鈥檚 series about an aardvark. The book was banned for including a reference to the game 鈥渟pin the bottle.鈥�
贵濒辞谤颈诲补鈥檚 approximately 4,500 books in the 2023-2024 school year, more than any other state.
overruled a large portion of HB 1069 in August 2025, calling the categorization and unconstitutional.
Following 贵濒辞谤颈诲补鈥檚 example, passed laws about book bans in the 2022-2023 school year.
Overall, there has been in book bans nationwide from 2022 to 2024.
Beyond Florida
If Florida lifts its vaccine mandate, the decision would also affect in Florida, including young children in day care centers and elderly residents living in nursing homes, which would also no longer require vaccines.
Private schools and universities would retain the ability to impose their own stances and vaccine requirements. However, private educational institutions in Florida often themselves with state guidance.
Idaho loosened its vaccination rules in the summer of 2025, from denying admission to a person who has not received vaccines. Louisiana has also said it will stop promoting mass vaccine campaigns.
As recent education policy history shows, 贵濒辞谤颈诲补鈥檚 potential decision to end vaccine mandates in schools and other places would immediately have ripple effects across the nation. It is likely that if Florida strikes down its school vaccine requirements, this move will catalyze a rapid unraveling of similar public health protections across other states.
This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .
