On December 15, the ever-spunky and leftist cage-rattling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his latest legislative proposal: The Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E.) Act. This bill takes on CRT indoctrination in the schools as well as woke propaganda in the workplace.

A press release announcing the proposal says the Stop W.O.K.E. Act "will be the strongest legislation of its kind in the nation" and that it "builds on actions Governor DeSantis has already taken" to drive CRT and the New York Times-sponsored 1619 Project out of Florida's schools. In sum, it codifies the Florida Department of Education's prohibition on teaching critical race theory in K-12 schools.

DeSantis is quoted in the press release as saying: "In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory. We won't allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards."

Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez also lauded the legislation. "As the daughter of Cuban exiles who fled from Marxist ideology," she said in the press release, "I am proud to stand alongside Governor DeSantis and support this proposed legislation that will put an end to wokeness that is permeating our schools and workforce."

Christopher Rufo, senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the Manhattan Institute, agrees that DeSantis' new policy agenda "goes two steps further than successful anti-CRT legislation in other states." Rufo observed: "First, it provides parents with a ‘private right of action,' which allows them to sue offending institutions for violations, gain information through legal discovery, and, if they win in the courts, collect attorney's fees. Second, it tackles critical race theory in corporate ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion' training programs, which as DeSantis says sometimes promote racial stereotyping, scapegoating, and harassment, in violation of state civil rights laws."

Rufo accompanied DeSantis on an early-morning visit to Tallahassee on December 15, where the governor outlined his new proposal in front of a small crowd at The Villages retirement community. Several speakers, including Rufo, also addressed the group. One speaker, a Cuban American mother from Miami, described how the "left-wing indoctrination in schools reminded her of her father's warnings about Communism in his native Cuba."

Rufo later appeared on the December 16 episode of Fox News Primetime to discuss the DeSantis bill with news anchor Will Cain. When Cain asked how, if passed, the law could be enforced if teachers should "vow to bring [CRT] into the classroom," Rufo responded: "It makes the practice illegal, a violation of the law. The legislation is very simple; it gives power to parents to enforce it at the very local level. It also promotes transparency. Parents should know what is being taught to their children. This bill is taking power away from bureaucrats."

In its press release, the governor's office pointed out that the legislative agenda is not only about banning CRT and other woke instruction in Florida, but is also about the state's adoption of new education standards for English Language Arts, Mathematics, Civics, Character Education and more. "We are modernizing students' curriculum and lesson plans to match Florida's new world-class education standards," said Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. "However, our classrooms, students and even teachers are under constant threat by Critical Race Theory advocates who are attempting to manipulate classroom content into a means to impose one's values on students, when instead schools should be empowering students with great, historically accurate knowledge and giving those students and their families the freedom to draw their own conclusions."

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