Fascist Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is going to control schools and Universities the way HE wants it to be. A Governor has no business controlling how a school can operate. And if anybody agrees with that, you clearly do not support freedom and privacy, as you want to be controlled by a right wing fanatic. This is how leaders in countries like Russia, Hungary, and North Korea rule, they control what can be taught in schools and control what teachers can say. That is not having freedom, that is called oppression, in which you are being controlled by an individual on how HE wants to rule your life.
White supremacists like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott do not want slavery being taught in schools which is basically what our country was founded on and why we fought the Civil War. So, they come up with buzzwords like "WOKE" and "CRT" known as "Critical Race Theory" to make it appear educators are doing something wrong in the classroom. Then they claim "this needs to be stopped" and they implement these bogus laws prohibiting American history from being taught in schools. Slavery has been taught in schools since the 1800's. Black leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. have been discussed in classrooms since he was assassinated in 1968. But right wing fascists like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have a problem with these subjects being taught in schools, so they made these oppressive laws against schools and teachers from even discussing these topics. They want to eliminate slavery and black leaders from being discussed since it goes against their racist ideology. They want to pretend slavery, Jim Crow, and racism never happened in America. So, they call it "woke" and "Critical Race Theory" as they ban books that contain these subjects and will punish teachers who discuss it. This is fascism folks, the state is controlling schools by erasing the history they don't like. Once you allow this to happen, the state can control anything they want.
Once they start with the schools, that opens the door for them to control other aspects of your life. Maybe they want to control what you do at work or what you do in your private lives. Maybe they don't think you really need that Social Security check or those VA benefits and take them away from you. After all, this one person gets to decide what's best for your life in a fascist oppressive society. You no longer have a choice in the matter when you are being controlled.
Once you allow fascists to get a foot in the door by controlling what we can do, you can bet they will forge ahead with more oppressive laws.
This is fascism folks, and no democracy has the state controlling what you can do in schools or in any area of your life. This is just a test run in Florida and in red states. If Republicans ever control Congress again, they will implement these fascist oppressive laws all across America where they will decide how you can live your own life. This is their far right wing "Christian Nationalism" they feel every American must abide by. These laws are being shoved through in red states, and if Republicans have full power, they will make these religious laws federal in all 50 states. The Supreme Court took away women's rights based on their evangelical religion, as they gave a middle finger to our Founding Fathers and Constitution which explicitly says that we have a "separation of church and state". If you give them more power, they will use that power to implement more religious oppressive laws. These radicals do not care about our Constitution or democracy, they want us to be ruled by how they believe we should live our lives. They want to control us.
Republicans have already banned books, targeted groups they don't like with hate laws, and are forcing women to give birth even if it kills them. This is all based on their radical extreme religion, and they are implementing these laws on their religion. They feel their "Christian Nationalism" is superior to anything else and all of us must follow what they tell us to do. Again, this is not democracy or freedom, when a minority of religious fanatics are controlling us. We as American citizens no longer have a choice under a fascist oppressive society and they have already begun their control against us.
Republicans are now talking about eliminating Social Security. And of course they will eliminate it because they will decide what's best for you in a fascist oppressive society. You no longer have choices, freedoms, or a right to privacy when you allow yourself to be controlled by the state.
Educators sound the alarm on DeSantis' classroom censorship
In his latest effort to regulate higher education, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation back in April that will allow the state to oversee the inner workings of universities, or what DeSantis referred to as a "hotbed for stale ideologies." The series of regulations, collectively called the "Stop W.O.K.E. Act," took effect on July 1st and includes changes to the tenure system, the abolishment of widely accepted accreditation practices, and mandatory yearly "viewpoint diversity surveys" — perhaps the most controversial part of the new regime. The law also places a ban on training focused on race or diversity in schools and in the workplace.
"It used to be thought that a university campus was a place where you'd be exposed to a lot of different ideas," DeSantis said at a press conference earlier this year. "Unfortunately, now the norm is, these are more intellectually repressive environments. You have orthodoxies that are promoted, and other viewpoints are shunned or even suppressed."
The "Stop W.O.K.E. Act," where "W.O.K.E." stands for "Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees," falls in line with the right wing's nationwide campaign to rid public education of "critical race theory."
DeSantis, who himself attended Yale and then Harvard Law School, has been a longtime critic of elite universities that he believes have become "repressive environments" for conservative thinking and ideas. At its inception, DeSantis championed the legislation as a strong stand against what he saw as state-sanctioned critical race theory. "We won't allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other," he said.
"I also want Florida to be known as a brick wall against all things 'woke,'" DeSantis said back in February. "This is where 'woke' goes to die."
Since Friday, when the law went into effect, the "Stop W.O.K.E. Act" has already faced strong legal challenges. Led by Associate Professor Robert Cassanello at the University of Central Florida, critics argue that the law violates teachers' constitutional rights.
"The governor, and the Florida Legislature acting at his behest, has repeatedly sought to punish companies who have engaged in speech that displeases him, in flagrant violation of the First Amendment," the preliminary motion filed on last week read.
A professor of the civil rights movement, Jim Crow America, emancipation, and reconstruction, Cassanello is worried that the regulations will restrict his ability to fully teach his courses. DeSantis' new law restricts the "ability to accurately and fully teach these subjects," he said.
Cassanello's institution, the University of Central Florida, withdrew its anti-racism statement after the law went into effect.
A U.S. District judge is expected to rule on the lawsuit soon.
After the initial passage of the act, several Florida legislators came out strongly against the governor's attack on higher education.
Member of the Florida State Senate Bobby Powell sees the legislation as an attempt to suppress the history of people of color. "You cannot discuss Robert E. Lee, or George Wallace, or Selma or Charlottesville without context…Slavery happened. Hangings happened. Burnings happened. Massacres happened. Jim Crow happened. George Floyd happened. And no amount of legislative banishments can erase those uncomfortable facts," Powell said.
Even amid the lawsuit, Florida's state government started approving mechanisms to enforce the new legislation this week. The board is working on passing penalties for university employees who do not go along with the new regulations. Additionally, the implementation will now tie state university funding to compliance.
Depending on how the judge rules, this legislation could have large implications for other states.
In Texas, for example, Gov. Greg Abbott already passed a controversial bill in 2021 regulating the teaching of slavery and racism in PreK-12 classrooms and could take the passage of the "Stop W.O.K.E. Act" as a green light to continue to regulate education.
One of Cassanello's main concerns is that the nature of these "critical race theory" bans is so vague, making their future impact currently unknown. "People are really concerned about their freedom in the classroom," he said. "A lot of this legislation is unclear about where the lines are."
https://www.rawstory.com/educators-sound-the-alarm-on-desantis-classroom-censorship/
