DeSantis: Critical Race Theory Teaches Children to Hate America and Each Other

UPDATE 10.25.23: Ever since Gov. Ron DeSantis moved to protect Florida’s children from radical indoctrination at school, the progressive left’s activist lawyers have been trying to take down those protections in court. Now, a federal judge will hear arguments in a case regarding some of DeSantis’s anti-woke-ideology laws. Michael Moline reports in the Florida Phoenix:

A federal judge will hear arguments on Monday in a lawsuit filed by professors and students at New College of Florida against a new state law that attempts to squelch progressive subject matter, including “critical race theory” or gender studies, plus diversity efforts in public universities.

At issue before U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee will be a motion to block implementation of the law pending a ruling on the group’s constitutional challenge to it in whole or part.

Represented by an organization dubbed NCF Freedom Inc., the group alleges in a complaint filed in August that SB 266, passed earlier this year, imposes viewpoint-based discrimination against protected speech in violation of the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague under the Due Process Clause of the Fourth Amendment, in that it fails to sufficiently specify what behavior will draw punishment.

The complaint names as defendants Manny Diaz Jr., state commissioner of education and a member of the university system’s Board of Governors, and other top state education officials including Richard Corcoran, newly installed as president of New College with pay package worth at least $1.3 million per year.

In a reply brief filed on Sept. 29, those defendants argued the state is justified in exerting control over general education courses that university students are obliged to take.

“This case is ultimately not a fight about academic freedom versus orthodoxy over the classroom. This is a fight over who controls the curriculum at public universities — professors or the public bodies who fund and govern public universities and who are ultimately accountable to the voters,” the state’s Sept. 29, 98-page brief argue.

“The case law and common sense hold that universities control their own curriculum. But plaintiffs want to usurp that authority and claim an unprecedented right to teach whatever they want in any course they want.”

SB 266

The law in question, SB 266, championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, made sweeping changes to higher education governance in Florida, including blocking state or federal funds for diversity initiatives (sometimes referred to as DEI, for “diversity, equity and inclusion”) or application of critical race theory. The measure also specifies that university presidents have the last word on personnel matters, abrogating the professor’s employment contracts’ arbitration option.

Originally posted March 19, 2021.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis strongly denounced teaching “critical race theory” to children and promised to purge it from Florida public schools. Sarah Taylor reports in The Blaze:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) says that children across the state will not have to learn about critical race theory — which isn’t worth “one red cent of taxpayer money” — while he’s governor.

What are the details?

During a Wednesday news conference, DeSantis told the public that he plans to purge critical race theory from public schools.

According to a report from the Daily Wire, DeSantis said that the state should be more concerned on teaching “foundational principles” rather than “narratives such as critical race theory that views all of history through the lens of race, and suggests that racism still infects almost every institution in the U.S. today.”

In his remarks, DeSantis said, “Florida civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials, and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theories and unsubstantiated theories. Let me be clear: There’s no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory. Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money. So we will invest in actual, solid, true curriculum and we will be a leader in the development and implementation of a world class civics education.”