TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s GOP-led Senate delivered a major piece of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2022 agenda on Thursday by passing legislation to root out any possible traces of critical race theory within the state school system while also targeting “woke” corporate trainings.
Lawmakers in the House and Senate approved the bill, one of the most controversial education proposals introduced this year, along party lines, with Democrats claiming the policies are an attempt by Republicans to reframe or “whitewash” history — particularly Black history — in the U.S. to advance their political priorities. GOP leaders, meanwhile, contend that the legislation, couched as an “individual freedom” bill, was needed to keep teachers and companies objective when leading school lessons or employee trainings around race.
“To my Republican colleagues, there is a national tone happening right now to where I believe that revisionist history is being practiced,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Black Democratic lawmaker from Miami Gardens. “This bill is not about individual freedom. This is a continuation of a national agenda to whitewash history all because we don’t want white children to feel uncomfortable about true Black history.”
The legislation comes just days after the Republican-led Legislature approved another contentious bill, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by opponents, that prohibits educators from leading classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender among kindergartners through third-graders.
Throughout session, the “anti-woke” bill, FL HB7 (22R), sparked intense debate among the public and lawmakers. The Senate spent more than six hours discussing the legislation over the last two days during emotional hearings where Black lawmakers spoke about racism and bigotry from today and in the past.
The proposal, which is now headed to DeSantis, was inspired by the Republican governor, who in December urged lawmakers to take up his “Stop WOKE Act” this session. DeSantis pushed to give parents the power to sue local school districts that teach lessons based in critical race theory and prevent companies from forcing employees to undergo sensitivity and racial awareness training that he claimed qualify as “harassment” in the workplace.
Critical race theory, an analytical framework developed by legal scholars, examines how race and racism have become ingrained in American law and institutions since slavery and Jim Crow. Critical race theory has been used by conservatives to criticize how race is being taught in the K-12 education system. Most public school officials across the country don’t teach the theory — even in districts where lawmakers are seeking to ban it.
DeSantis, along with state Republicans and some parents, claims that lessons founded in critical race theory are still being taught in Florida schools despite the state prohibition, a notion denied by school leaders.
The bill lawmakers ultimately approved will expand Florida’s anti-discrimination laws to prohibit schools and companies from leveling guilt or blame to students and employees based on race or sex, taking aim at lessons over issues like “white privilege.” To that end, the legislation creates new protections for students and workers, including that a person should not be instructed to “feel guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” due to their race, color, sex or national origin.
“We can all talk about the history of what happened in our country. And I think we can all feel shame that we had slavery, just like people in Germany can all feel shame of the history for what happened in the Holocaust,” said state Sen. Kelli Stargel (R-Lakeland). “But not all Germans were a participant of that, and not all white people were a participant of that.”
Regarding K-12 education, the measure clarifies that teachers are allowed to lead classroom discussions “in an age-appropriate manner” on issues such as sexism, racial oppression and segregation. At the same time, it states that lessons can’t be “used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”
Although the legislation does not call out critical race theory by name, the proposal builds on a state Board of Education rule passed to thwart local teachers from going “rogue” in the classroom by leading lessons that include pieces of the subject. According to the rule, critical race theory and The 1619 Project on race from The New York Times are examples of theories that “distort historical events.”
For the workplace, the legislation is geared toward reigning in how companies lead racial sensitivity and bias training. Republican lawmakers throughout session called out companies such as American Express, Google and Coca-Cola, which hosted a training urging its employees to be “less white.”
Numerous companies, including Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. and H&M U.S., and local chambers of commerce have denounced the bill, suggesting it could “wreak havoc on business operations” and force them to drop “meaningful” trainings for fear of “frivolous” lawsuits while making it harder to recruit employees.
“We are expanding a cause of action to include a category of discrimination for basically, let’s just say, white people who don’t feel good,” said Sen. Tina Scott Polsky (D-Boca Raton). “That’s what this whole bill is, to protect, I guess, white students from feeling guilty about the sins of our past.”
State Republicans introduced the bill as part of their larger push to seize on gender and race issues in education ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and have downplayed the possibility of the legislation triggering a mass of lawsuits.
“What we cannot debate is that we send our students to school to learn, to be thinkers, not to be told what to think,” said Sen. Manny Diaz Jr. (R-Hialeah), who carried the bill in the Senate.
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By: Andrew Atterbury
Title: Florida lawmakers limit how race can be taught in classrooms and companies
Sourced From: www.politico.com/news/2022/03/10/florida-republicans-race-classrooms-companies-00016118
Published Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2022 13:19:58 EST
