CAIR-Florida — the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations — suspended its operations on November 5 after a state terrorist designation officially took effect. The designation means any private school affiliated with CAIR, employing CAIR-connected personnel, or accepting CAIR funds is now ineligible for Florida's school voucher program. That program covers $4.9 billion in the 2026-27 school year and serves 570,325 students across 2,477 private schools.
The state of Florida had to write that into law. In 2026.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet approved state terrorist designations for CAIR and CAIR-Florida back in September. The legal backbone is House Bill 1471, which became law in April and took effect July 1. The bill prohibits participating private schools from employing or contracting with affiliates of designated terrorist organizations, accepting their funds, or being owned or operated by them. The Florida Department of Education made the policy unmistakable: "In the Free State of Florida, our message is clear: private schools who have any affiliation with a terrorist group have no business operating in our state."
The voucher program is massive. The Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options alone covers 279,369 students. The Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities serves another 161,993. Home education scholarships account for 76,869 more. The average scholarship runs about $8,000. Schools receiving over $250,000 annually are required to hire independent CPAs for financial reporting. Step Up for Students, the nonprofit administering the program, processes the funds.
CAIR-Florida's response was to announce plans to appeal a federal court ruling that denied their request to reverse the designation. The federal court already heard the argument and said no. So the organization that just got designated as having terrorist affiliations by the state of Florida is now asking a higher court to overrule both the state and the lower federal court.
The FBI previously cut ties with CAIR nationally back in 2008 after evidence presented during the Holy Land Foundation trial — the largest terrorism financing prosecution in American history — showed CAIR's founders had ties to Hamas. That was eighteen years ago. The question isn't why Florida acted. The question is why Florida is the first state to connect those dots to education funding.
House Bill 1471 doesn't name CAIR specifically. It sets up a framework: the state designates organizations, and any school connected to a designated group loses voucher eligibility. The mechanism is clean. Designate, verify, defund. No carve-outs, no lengthy appeals process before the funding stops.
Florida's voucher program puts nearly $5 billion in taxpayer money into private education every year. HB 1471 says none of that money goes to schools connected to groups the state has identified as terrorist-affiliated. CAIR-Florida suspended operations the day the designation took effect.
The law took effect July 1. The designation landed in September. CAIR-Florida shut down November 5. Three dates, one outcome.