More than a century ago, the Left set its sights on capturing our educational institutions so as to spread “progressive” ideology and undermine the beliefs it dislikes, such as limited government and private enterprise. In that, the effort has been very successful. Leftists dominate the faculty and administration almost everywhere and are eager to use their positions to push their beliefs on students.
Finally, a concerted counterattack has begun, and in today’s Martin Center article, Jay Schalin writes about it.
Florida has taken the lead. Schalin writes, “One such attempt is Florida’s ‘Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (WOKE) Act.’ This 2022 law statutorily prohibits discriminatory classroom teaching. It targets such divisive ideas as Critical Race Theory (CRT), which demands that members of a racial group must perpetually atone for injustices committed by members of their group centuries before, and that claims by aggrieved minorities against the offending groups should pass unchallenged.”
Naturally, the Left is complaining about what they regard as an intrusion into their domain. But as Schalin argues, the Florida statute does not reduce academic freedom and is perfectly within the purview of the state legislature, which also is responsible for the funding and oversight of public universities.
Schalin concludes, “The time is over when the majority of Americans—at least the majority in so-called ‘red’ states—will continue to fund public universities that openly work against the public interest through classroom indoctrination.”