© FOX 51Florida Governor Ron DeSantis
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans to codify the state-wide ban on Critical Race Theory-inspired lessons for students and employees on Wednesday in Wildwood, Florida.
DeSantis laid out his new legislation titled,
"Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act," or the Stop WOKE Act, which aims to
"give businesses, employees, children, and families tools to fight back against woke indoctrination." The legislation also
"prohibits school districts, colleges, and universities from hiring woke CRT consultants," according to a
handout.
DeSantis said:
"We won't allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. Finally, we 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."
Florida's Lieutenant Gov. Jeanette Nuรฑez said that the Stop WOKE Act
"gives students and employees the resources they need to fight back against discrimination, critical race theory, and indoctrination."
Specifically, the legislation provides employees, parents, and students
a private right of action to sue individuals and school districts that fail to comply with state standards.DeSantis said during the legislative announcement that school districts and teachers refused to comply with the state Board of Education's initial
ban on CRT.
The Zinn Education Project, a left-wing education group, posted a
list of teachers who pledged to continue teaching CRT even if state laws ban it. Per the list, 110 Florida teachers signed the pledge.
Florida's Commissioner of Education encouraged schools to focus on "empowering students with great, historically accurate knowledge and giving those students and their families the freedom to draw their own conclusions," instead of advocating for CRT.
Comment: DeSantis is a rare beacon of sanity.
According to a press release from DeSantis' office:
"The Stop WOKE Act will be the strongest legislation of its kind in the nation and will take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory. Today's proposal builds on actions Governor DeSantis has already taken to ban Critical Race Theory and the New York Times' 1619 project in Florida's schools."
DeSantis, at the press conference, said:
"Our legislation would defund any money from K-12 to higher ed going to CRT. I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism. They want to tear at the fabric of our society and our culture, really things we've taken for granted, like the ability of parents to direct the upbringing of their kids. In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory."
The proposed legislation would also classify businesses that require critical race theory training as a "hostile work environment" under Florida law.
"We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards. Finally, we 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.
"How is it not a hostile work environment to be attacking people based on their race or telling them that they're privileged or part of oppressive systems when all they're doing is showing up to work and trying to earn a living? We believe that that violates the Florida Civil Rights laws, but to the extent that it doesn't, we're going to make sure that the law does include this."
The prosed bill builds on a move by the Florida Department of Education in June, which banned CRT teachings in public school classrooms.
Comment: DeSantis is a rare beacon of sanity.