Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is cracking down on far-left critical race theory being peddled in public schools.
On Wednesday, DeSantis revealed the Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act, otherwise known as the Stop WOKE Act.
The law will allow parents to sue school districts that are believed to be pushing critical race theory on their kids.
“Our legislation will defund any money for K-12 going to CRT consultants,” DeSantis said. “No taxpayer dollars should be used to teach our kids to hate our country or hate each other.”
Critical race theory is a set of beliefs that paint White people as oppressors and racists. The theory relies on ideas based on race essentialism which claims that races have immutable characteristics that can’t be changed — in the case of White people, critical race theory advocates only view them as White supremacists.
DeSantis is set to introduce the law in the legislature following the Christmas holidays. The bill will also give teachers the power to fight “unlawful mandates from their elected district leadership” and will place a ban on post-secondary institutions hiring critical race theory consultants.
“[W]e must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired’ training’ and indoctrination,” said DeSantis.
“Think about what MLK stood for. He said he didn’t want people judged on the color of their skin but on the content of their character — you listen to some of these people nowadays, they don’t talk about that.”
Critical race theory has become a major wedge issue in the US as the Republicans gear up to retake the House of Representatives.
State governments throughout the country have moved to stop the ideology from being taught in public education.
In August, California’s Paso Robles Joint Unified School District banned critical race theory from being taught in the classroom after parents raised concerns over the issue.
“I find critical race theory to be just an absolutely disgustingly racist ideology that has been developed with the intention of really driving a wedge between various groups in America, various ethnic groups, and to use that to absolutely ruin our nation,” said school board president Chris Arend.
