FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis imposed restrictions Friday on the way race-related issues are taught in public schools and in private workplaces in Florida. Lessons that might make some people uncomfortable would be banned.
DeSantis said he was acting to protect students from “pernicious ideologies like critical race theory,” promising that “we are not going to use your tax dollars to teach our kids to hate this country or hate each other.”
The restrictions are contained in a state law, proposed by DeSantis and ratified by the Florida Legislature, in response to a frenzy among conservative activists who believe so-called “critical race theory” is being taught in schools. Educators say that’s not happening.
The education law was one of four bills the governor signed Friday in a kind of DeSantis-palooza of legislation aimed at ginning up excitement among Republican primary voters and punishing the political opposition. He also signed into law a map of new congressional districts, designed by his aides, that would reduce the number of districts likely to send Black members of Congress to Washington and two bills penalizing the Walt Disney Co. after it opposed — and promised to support repeal of — the Parental Rights in Education law, derided by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. That law prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade and limits it in older grades.
At a rally in Hialeah Gardens where DeSantis signed three of the bills into law, he said the restrictions on teaching about race don’t mean there won’t be any more lessons about African American history, slavery or how the failure of post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution necessitated the civil rights movement.
“You actually will hear people lie about what we’re actually doing in the bill,” DeSantis charged. “We have to be accurate and we cannot allow ideologues to try to distort what has happened in our country’s history. And so we will absolutely teach all aspects of history that are true.”
State Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, said in a telephone interview that what DeSantis is doing is much different from the picture he’s painting.
“It’s just wrong,” Osgood said. “He’s weaponizing the school system. He’s weaponizing education to stir up his base. It’s all a smoke screen.” Osgood said it’s a mistake “to get the educational and cultural wars going. We’ve come too far for that.”
There isn’t a problem that needs solving, said Osgood, a former member of the Broward School Board and an associate pastor at New Mount Olive Baptist Church.
Osgood said DeSantis isn’t doing any favors to students by shielding them from information that might make them feel uncomfortable. “Education is an environment to expose young people to information so that they can think critically. There is no K through 12 teaching of critical race theory. That is all fake news.”
DeSantis acknowledged that critics of the new law “will say there is no course called CRT in our K through 12 schools. And you know, that is actually true that there are courses like that in law schools, which is really where it should stay.” He said the law is “actually enumerating the principles of CRT being put into practice” and outlawing them.
He also hailed another aspect of the law, aimed at shielding employees from training that might make them uncomfortable. He said big corporations based in other states have subjected employees to training that he said teaches that “America is a system of white supremacy” or has “encourage(d) employees to complete a ‘white privilege’ checklist.” Such lessons, under the new law, are now “a violation of your civil rights.”
The messaging at DeSantis’ rally Friday was clear. He signed it at a charter school, which are favorites of conservatives who tout their competition with traditional public schools. Before DeSantis arrived, a racially diverse group of school children was given signs to hold — one set shaped like a stop sign proclaimed “Stop Woke” in red and white and the other had the letters CRT with a red circle and slash over the term.
The event featured several conservative activists praising DeSantis’ move.
———
