HILLSDALE, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Florida Governor Ron Desantis will be speaking at Hillsdale College this Thursday regarding matters of K-12 Education. 

According to the college’s Collegian newspaper, the event will begin in the afternoon with a panel discussion on K-12 Education, and will close with a Question and Answer session between the school’s President Larry Arnn, Ph.D. and Gov. DeSantis. 

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Education has been at the forefront of Gov. DeSantis’ campaign and time as Governor, which has included reforms to K-12 Education, but he’s recently turned his attention to higher education in the state including plans to overhaul the previously established New College of Florida in Sarasota, FL.  One of the new appointed members to NCF’s reformed board of trustees includes Dr. Matthew Spalding, Hillsdale’s Vice President of Washington Operations and Dean of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government at the college’s D.C. school.  

“As Governor DeSantis stated in his second inaugural speech: ‘We must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth.’ Starting today, the ship is turning around. New College of Florida, under the governor’s new appointees, will be refocused on its founding mission of providing a world-class quality education with an exceptional focus on the classics,” DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin, said in a statement.  

During the summer, Gov. DeSantis expressed his desire to model the New College of Florida after Hillsdale College, which is renowned for its classical approach to education through the teaching of the Liberal Arts, and teaching of the Western Heritage through classical and Christian works. 

“It is our hope that New College of Florida will become Florida’s classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South,” James Uthmeier, Chief of Staff for DeSantis said.  

While Hillsdale has expressed its support of the expansion of classical liberal arts, it did not endorse the comment as an official partnership. 

“The compliment is flattering, but after 175 years, we’ve got the ‘Hillsdale’ copyright secure and the college is quite at home in the great state of Michigan,” Hillsdale College spokeswoman Emily Davis said to the Daily Caller. 

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When Hillsdale advertised the event in the Collegian, a week ahead of the event, the guest list was already full.  Previously this March, former Vice President Mike Pence spoke in the chapel about Faith, God, and the Constitution.

The college has also provided a link on YouTube to a livestream of the event titled “An Evening with Special guest Gov. Ron DeSantis for those to tune in virtually.