News Analysis
On Jan. 17, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met with the Florida cabinet for the first time in his second term, he experienced something he hadn’t known during the entirety of his first term. There were no Democrats in the cabinet to challenge his anti-woke agenda. So without opposition, DeSantis and the Board of Trustees unanimously “approved measures to protect Florida’s investments from woke environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).”
The term “woke” is widely used to describe a number of more radical progressive ideologies, including critical race theory, social justice, and gender theory.
The Board of Trustees for the State Board of Administration (SBA) consists of DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, all Republicans and all independently elected by Florida’s voters. Patronis and Moody were endorsed by DeSantis.
“As a fiduciary of the State of Florida, I and my fellow trustees have an obligation to make responsible investment decisions on behalf of the beneficiaries we represent—not cater to woke corporate executives trying to force political ideology,” Moody told The Epoch Times in a statement issued by email. “Through this action, we will continue to fight back against ESG agendas that put partisan ideology ahead of financial returns for Florida’s retirees.”
DeSantis and the cabinet share in the joint oversight of a host of state funding programs, including the management of over $200 billion in state and local government pension investments—one of the largest public retirement plans in the United States—through Florida’s SBA.
“Corporations across America continue to inject an ideological agenda through our economy rather than through the ballot box,” DeSantis said, adding that the board’s actions “reinforce that ESG considerations will not be tolerated here in Florida.”
The Florida cabinet has six formal meetings tentatively scheduled for 2023 (pdf), with an additional six meetings on the calendar to hear clemency pleas (pdf) from convicted felons who have served their time and hope to have their civil rights restored. During DeSantis’ previous term, the cabinet’s only Democrat, Nikki Fried, served as the commissioner of agriculture and consumer services. This term, that seat is occupied by former Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Republican.
Fried lost her seat on the board as Florida’s commissioner of agriculture after choosing instead to mount what became a losing bid to secure her party’s gubernatorial nomination. She was defeated by former Congressman Charlie Crist, who lost his challenge to unseat DeSantis in the 2022 general election.
This was not the governor’s first victory in furthering his anti-woke agenda.
Other Recent Wins
On Jan. 15, MSN reported that the National Hockey League (NHL) was forced to adjust its “discriminatory” job fair language in the wake of backlash for an advertisement that specified that the event was only open to “diverse job seekers.”In a since-deleted post on social media, the NHL said the event—scheduled for Feb. 2 in Fort Lauderdale—was open to “participants aged 18 or over, based in the [United States], who identify as female, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability.”
DeSantis Executive Press Secretary Bryan Griffin said, “Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida, and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic,” and advised the NHL to “immediately remove and denounce the discriminatory prohibitions it has imposed on attendance.”
In a statement to Fox News, the NHL insisted that “the original wording” of the post about the event “was not accurate” and said the summit is instead an “event designed to encourage all individuals to consider a career in our game,” particularly those “who might not be familiar with hockey to the opportunities it offers.”
During the November 2022 general election—where conservatives flipped nine school boards in six states, including Florida—six pro-parental rights school board candidates backed by DeSantis won their elections.Key Appointments
This was not the governor’s first endeavor to place people in key positions who would be supportive of his anti-woke agenda. While some came through election endorsements, some came by direct appointment.Chris Spencer, who has been with DeSantis from the very beginning, serves as the governor’s policy director (pdf) for the Office of Policy and Budget. On Dec. 28, 2022, Spencer sent a memo to Department of Education Director Manny Diaz Jr. and Chancellor Ray Rodrigues requesting that all state colleges and universities report all state-funded expenditures on “programs and initiatives related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory.”
On Dec. 17, 2018, DeSantis appointed Richard Corcoran—a military veteran, attorney, and former Republican congressman who also served as speaker of the house—to serve as commissioner for the Florida Department of Education. Described as one of DeSantis’ “most prominent and impactful lieutenants,” Corcoran facilitated many of the governor’s anti-woke, anti-masking policies throughout Florida’s public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and threatened to remove school officials who disobeyed the governor’s policies.
On May 27, 2022, DeSantis appointed Corcoran to the Board of Governors of the State University System. The Florida Board of Governors oversees the state’s 12 public universities and is responsible for adopting regulations to facilitate state laws related to higher education. That appointment is also subject to confirmation by the Republican-controlled state senate.
On Sept. 21, 2021, DeSantis named Dr. Joseph Ladapo as Florida’s new surgeon general. At an October 2021 press conference, Ladapo spoke of his opposition to forced masking and vaccine mandates, supporting the governor’s ban on such policies in the Sunshine State.
On Jan. 6, 2022, DeSantis appointed six new members to the 13-member New College of Florida Board of Trustees, creating a conservative majority, in an effort to unwind the public liberal arts school’s current “values“—of providing a ”just, diverse, equitable, and inclusive community.” All but two of the new appointees are prominent conservatives. The nominees must be confirmed by the Florida Senate, currently controlled by Republicans.
DeSantis’ Key Anti-Woke Policies
Jan. 31, 2019: DeSantis signed Executive Order 19-32 (pdf), making Florida the first state in the nation to eliminate former President Barack Obama’s Common Core program, “ensuring high-quality academic standards and raising the bar for civic literacy.”June 2020: DeSantis signed SB 404 (pdf), requiring written consent from a minor’s parent or legal guardian before they can obtain an abortion.
May 3, 2021: DeSantis signed SB 2006 (pdf), banning vaccine passports in the state of Florida.
May 24, 2021: DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7072, holding Big Tech accountable for its “effort to silence, intimidate, and wipe out dissenting voices by the leftist media and big corporations,” and to deplatform conservative candidates.
June 1, 2021: DeSantis signed SB 1028 (pdf), the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which prohibits transgender athletes—biological males—from competing in girls’ sports.
July 30, 2021: DeSantis announced Executive Order 21–175 (pdf), the Parents’ Bill of Rights, which bans forced masking in public schools, giving parents the right to choose what’s best for their children.
March 8, 2022: DeSantis signed House Bill (HB) 1557—referred to by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill—into law. This legislation (pdf), Parental Rights in Education, upholds the fundamental rights of parents to decide how their children will be raised. It “prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and prohibits instruction that is not age appropriate for students and requires school districts to adopt procedures for notifying parents if there is a change in services from the school regarding a child’s mental, emotional or physical health, or well-being.”
March 25, 2022: DeSantis signed HB 1467 (pdf), requiring school districts to be transparent in the selection of instructional materials, including textbooks, library books, and reading materials.
April 14, 2022: DeSantis signed HB 5, the Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality Act, which prohibits doctors from performing an abortion after 15 weeks.
April 15, 2022: The Florida Department of Education rejected 54 of the 132 textbooks submitted for approval. Of those, 28 were rejected because they contained “prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT [critical race theory],” and 12 were rejected because they did not “properly align with” Florida’s Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) standards. An additional 14 textbooks were rejected for the same reason, while also containing “unsolicited strategies, including CRT.”
“It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism—especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students,” DeSantis said. “I’m grateful that Commissioner Corcoran and his team at the department have conducted such a thorough vetting of these textbooks to ensure they comply with the law.”
April 22, 2022: For its public opposition to the Parental Rights in Education law, DeSantis signed SB 4-C (pdf) to strip Disney of the special tax privileges it enjoyed through the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act. It was the fruition of an idea he proposed on April 1, 2022.
April 22, 2022: DeSantis signed HB 7 into law. The legislation (pdf)—otherwise known as the “Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E.) Act”—provides businesses, employees, children, and families with the tools to fight back against “discrimination and woke indoctrination.” It was the follow-through of his proposal for the legislation made on Dec. 15, 2021. In January 2022, the law’s restrictions, placed on education in colleges and universities, were challenged. Since then, the law has faced many legal challenges, which are still ongoing—with the most recent decision being made in support of the law, according to Fox News.
Oct. 20, 2022: The Florida Department of Education unanimously passed a resolution (pdf) requiring schools that allow transgender students to use restrooms, locker rooms, or dressing rooms that do not reflect the student’s biological sex at birth, to inform parents in full, by mail, to be consistent with the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
Dec. 1, 2022: Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced Florida would start to pull $2 billion in assets away from BlackRock over the company’s major push into ESG policies and “social credit ratings” established through “stakeholder capitalism.”
According to a story first reported on Jan. 18 by National Review, DeSantis’ Department of Education has shut down a pilot program, Advanced Placement African-American Studies (APAAS), saying “the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
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