Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he will take action to prohibit schools in his state from teaching critical race theory (CRT). While speaking to reporters during a Friday press conference, the Republican governor said it was “offensive” to use taxpayer money to fund an ideology that teaches kids to hate each other and their country.
“I mean, first of all, it’s offensive — here we are celebrating tax savings — it’s offensive to the taxpayer that they would be asked to fund critical race theory,” he said, “that they would be asked to fund teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other.”
Florida Gov. DeSantis:
"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 hate each other." pic.twitter.com/xlVAnrNNqb
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 21, 2021
DeSantis blasted CRT for teaching children “false history” and disparaging the American founding.
“It’s also 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,” he said. “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, and if we have to play whack-a-mole all over this state, stopping this critical race theory, we will do it.”
The Florida Board of Education is set to address the teaching of CRT in Florida schools during their meeting next month.
“We’ll be taking action,” DeSantis said. “Don’t you worry.”
The latest comments from DeSantis come amidst a nationwide crackdown on CRT in American public schools. Last week, a coalition of more than 20 state attorneys general sent a letter to the Biden administration to withdraw education proposals that would promote CRT and the New York Times’ “1619 Project” in school classrooms.
“The proposed priorities are a thinly veiled attempt at bringing into our states’ classrooms the deeply flawed and controversial teachings of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project,” the letter read. “Critical Race Theory (‘CRT’) is an ideological construct that analyzes and interprets American history and government primarily through the narrow prism of race. Similarly, the 1619 Project seeks to ‘reframe the country’s history.’ As such, it distorts, rather than illuminates, a proper and accurate understanding of our nation’s history and governmental institutions and, therefore, is fundamentally at odds with federal and state law.”
