Florida removes sociology from core courses at College of the Florida Keys

At the College of the Florida Keys, a sociology class that once fit neatly into the transfer track no longer counted toward the 36-credit general-education core, forcing Monroe County students to redraw degree plans, choose another approved course and, in some cases, reconsider graduation timing.

The change came after the Florida State Board of Education voted unanimously on April 17 to remove Introduction to Sociology from the Florida College System core list. The Florida Department of Education said 28 public colleges are in the system, and 23 colleges had sociology on their 2026-27 general-education lists and were told to remove it. Florida had already taken the same step in the State University System, where the Board of Governors removed Intro to Sociology from university general education for the 2026-27 academic year.

For CFK, the policy cut into a program built around transfer. The college's Associate in Arts degree requires 60 credits, including 36 general-education credits, and it is designed primarily for students moving on to four-year campuses. CFK says its A.A. students should work closely with academic advisers to map electives and prerequisites into a bachelor's-degree plan, and the college maintains 2+2 partnerships with Florida's 12 public universities and 31 independent universities, plus a dozen other institutions. A student who expected sociology to satisfy a core requirement now has to find another route through the general-education menu, a change that can ripple through semester-by-semester scheduling.

State officials tied the decision to Senate Bill 266, enacted in 2023, which created section 1007.55 of the Florida Statutes and amended section 1007.25 to set new general-education content standards. The department said general education should be free from identity politics, distortion of historical events and discriminatory content. Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas said sociology had drifted from its academic purpose toward ideological viewpoints, while State Board Chair Ryan Petty said core courses had to rest on rigorous scholarship and accurate history.

The state also argued that consistency mattered because more than half of Florida college students continue at state universities. Students who had already completed sociology for general-education credit were not penalized. But in Key West and across Monroe County, where CFK is one of the few direct access points to higher education, the practical work now falls to advisers and students who must rebuild transfer plans around a course that is no longer part of the core.