Florida: America’s Frontline for Educational Descent into Madness

In recent years, Florida has become an increasingly unwelcoming place for ‘progressive’ thinking, policies, and programs. In fact, it could be reasonably argued that recent measures that include banning African American studies classes for “advancing a political agenda” and installing conservative Board of Trustees at New College — a traditionally progressive school with a history of social justice and social activism — in what is being seen as a “hostile takeover” of a school that challenges much of the rhetoric being spewed by the Governor of the State and his lackies. Make no mistake about it, DeSantis is a genius…an evil genius…but a genius nonetheless. DeSantis is not alone in his war on wokeness that is at the center of the GOP political platform related to education. In a fundamental way, the far-right want to erase a history of maltreatment, discrimination, hatred, murder, rape, and other forms of terror, exploitation, and oppression imposed upon non-white populations during the history of this country. The goal appears to be to replace it with a history that paints people — specifically white people — as less villainous than they actually were when they arrived on the shores on the East Coast bringing pestilence, ethnocentrism, and a sincere belief in their own superiority over the ‘savages’ they encountered.

Perhaps the most interesting piece of the argument against wokeness by far-right GOPers is a reliance on ‘free speech’ only in so far as it will help their own means. When it comes to speaking truth about the history of Black people, Indigenous people, Latinx people, women, people with disabilities, and other members of historically racialized and minoritized groups, apparently that truth it too much for some people to handle. I mean, it makes sense that a white man would be uncomfortable hearing about the experiences of slaves and how that culture and that reality spills over into how we treat Black people today. But, to fully deny others the opportunity to hear a narrative that counters the narrative that is required to maintain the ‘status quo’ in the United States, that does not read to me like freedom of speech…that reads like fascism. This is also foreshadowing for what can be expected from the next presidential election when DeSantis and Trump race to the bottom as they hurl insults back and forth at each other about who is doing the better job at devolving education into a system of service-industry worker preparation with no sense of critical thinking or interest in questioning anything.

Florida has long been an unfortunate reality for the United States. What was once a penal colony for people deemed too unsavory for public consumption over 400 years ago appears to resemble a similar state. There are some people living in Florida — and around the country — that are actively working to infuse a political agenda into the curriculum of educational institutions around the world that is intentionally designed to obfuscate a history and legacy of exploitation and oppression in this country. As an educator who advocates for and with racialized and minoritized students, I know how they experience an educational system that does not prioritize their unique needs. I see how limiting the exposure of truth and reality related to the history of racialized and minoritized populations in the United States can imbue one with a sense of false reality about the state of the world. Ignoring the problems caused by racism, prejudice, and discrimination will not make them go away. Discussing these important pieces of our history and acknowledging their effects and discussing ways we can move forward should be the goal of educational institutions, in Florida and everywhere. Do not think for a second that this is the most outrageous or contentious move to be made related to education in Florida. By the end of it, all Florida textbooks used in education will be replaced with a single textbook written by ChatGP and edited by the Proud Boys. As we move closer to the next presidential election, many of the moves made in Florida will become platforms for national education policy. After all, if you want to warp the minds of an entire population, it is best to start when they are young.