Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently proposed a $106 million civics education initiative, reflecting growing fears of civics ignorance in a country shocked by the storming of the U.S. Capitol, and political cleavages that seem to deepen by the hour. But even as he touted a solution to our deep-seated political conflicts he intensified them, declaring that “there’s no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other.”
By declaring critical race theory (CRT) off-limits, rather than bringing diverse people together DeSantis was pitting them against each other. But it was not his fault. Public schooling forces zero-sum conflict such as we are seeing over CRT. And Florida, supported by DeSantis, is a leader in what can ultimately end inescapable warfare: school choice.
From its earliest days in the 19th century, public schooling has pitted people with differing backgrounds and beliefs against each other, whether it was Roman Catholics and Protestants fighting over whose version of the Bible schools would use, or people of different races battling over who could even enter a school.
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