Gov. Ron DeSantis made a name for himself by bragging that his state of Florida is where "woke goes to die." He, like most Republicans, sprints away from anyone asking him what exactly he means by the word "woke." Still, the past year in Florida, where educators have been crushed under various "anti-woke" laws signed by DeSantis, has made the parameters quite clear: "Woke" is acknowledging that racism is a thing that ever happened and/or accepting that LGBTQ people exist. DeSantis' vision for Florida is very much Disney in its most reactionary, "Song of the South" era. But probably with fewer kids reading since books are categorically viewed with suspicion in DeSantis' "anti-woke" paradise.
Despite DeSantis' Florida-centric language when he talks about schools, however, it's long been clear that the ambitious plans to decimate education extend past the Sunshine State's borders and across the U.S. He's not a lone figure who just happens to have a crippling obsession with keeping kids from reading. DeSantis is really just the most prominent figure in what is a national GOP campaign to destroy the educational system, remaking it into a propaganda system for various right-wing hobbyhorses, no matter how disassociated from reality they may be.
