He Did It: Ron DeSantis Opens Florida's Board of Education Meeting, and Critical Race Theory Gets Banned

(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Ron DeSantis continues to earn claps from cultural conservatives as Florida moves a little more to the social Right.

Or, perhaps, to what was the center until very recently.

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In May, The Sunshine State’s governor made a promise.

Upon signing a tax-cutting package, he announced he’d “play Whack-A-Mole” against Critical Race Theory in Florida schools.

He spoke of lipstick and stickin’ it to taxpayers:

“You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig. … So what we’re doing, the Department, the Florida Board of Education is meeting, and they are addressing this. And I told them they need to address this. And we’ve got to do it. … It’s offensive to the taxpayer that they would be asked to fund Critical Race Theory. That they would be asked to fund teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other.

And while guesting on Unfiltered with Dan Bongino Saturday, Ron tore into CRT, which he called “horse manure.”

“We’re…not going to support any Republican candidate for school board,” he vowed, “who supports critical race theory in all 67 counties…”

Furthermore:

“Next week, I have my Commissioner of Education going to the Board of Education banning it, banning any departure from accurate history and following our standards. This is something we’ve got to stay on the forefront of.”

Well, he wasn’t kidding.

As reported by the New York Post, on Thursday, the state’s Board of Education banned Critical Race Theory in public schools.

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Gov. Ron opened the meeting and implored members to 86 the controversial race-based ideology.

Speaking virtually, he asserted, “Some of this stuff is, I think, really toxic. I think it’s going to cause a lot of divisions.”

“The woke class wants to teach kids to hate each other, rather than teaching them how to read, but we will not let them bring nonsense ideology into Florida’s schools.”

The Post notes the measure — which mentions CRT and the 1619 Project specifically — faced “fierce opposition” from critics.

However, board members approved it unanimously.

Gov. Ron tweeted points of the amendment:

  • Teach students how to think, not what to think
  • Foster an environment where students can think critically and for themselves
  • Protect students from being influenced or indoctrinated to think a certain way
  • Ensure students receive classroom instruction that is factual and objective
  • Help guarantee teachers serve as facilitators of classroom discussion without making students feel pressured to think a certain way
  • Provide a well-rounded, world-class education that exposes students to multiple viewpoints and perspectives on a litany of topics

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We’re at a curious place culturally.

A new generation’s being taught that race is of supreme importance, and that to view it as such is virtuous.

The idea’s seen massive support across societal sectors — from Coca-Cola to Cartoon Network.

Many children surely have no idea that America’s been here before and allegedly learned its lesson.

We’ve spent the last several decades working toward a world where color was irrelevant.

The best I can tell, the bulk of that effort’s been undone.

But as made clear Thursday, Ron prefers the dream of Martin Luther King:

“I think it’ll cause people to think of themselves more as a member of particular race based on skin color, rather than based on the content of their character and based on their hard work and what they’re trying to accomplish in life.”

He said he doesn’t want children taught that “the country is rotten and that our institutions are illegitimate.”

Others in government clearly disagree. On Sunday, Joe Biden commissioned the Class of 2021 with this:

“[Y]ou face another inflection point. As we put this pandemic behind us, rebuild our economy, root out systemic racism, and tackle climate change, we’re addressing the great crises of our time with a greater sense of purpose than never before.”

At the Jacksonville location where the Board of Education convened, chanting protestors were clearly Team Biden:

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“Allow teachers to tell the truth!”

That’s exactly why the governor urged board members to ban CRT.

He explained on Bongino’s show:

“[I]t’s…based on false history, when they try to look back and denigrate the founding fathers, denigrate the American Revolution, doing all these different things that even very liberal historians say is not supported by the facts. … [I] think what we need is, we need the Constitution back in classrooms. We need to make sure civics is a priority, but it needs to be taught accurately. It needs to be taught in a fact-based way, not an ideological-based way.”

The governor insists it’s false history, critics claim it’s accurate history. But no matter, now in Florida, Critical Race Theory — so far as public classrooms are concerned — is itself history.

-ALEX

 

See more pieces from me:

The Chauvin Trial Cost Minneapolis Millions in Overtime Police Pay

Parents Protest Elite New York School’s Plan to Ax Advanced Math

A Whistleblower Shares a Racial Justice Lesson From Coca-Cola: ‘Try to Be Less White’

Find all my RedState work here.

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