POLITICO obtained<\/a>.<\/p>\nHall was an official in the Florida Department of Education before DeSantis appointed him to the juvenile justice department.<\/p>\n
Hall\u2019s 272-page dissertation studied two \u201calternative\u201d schools and how the public education system displaces minority students at higher rates through expulsion and other factors. In turn, that can lead to large numbers of minority students ending up in the \u201cschool-to-prison pipeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
He concludes, in part, that school curriculum is crafted in a way that specifically disadvantages minority students.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstanding this practice and the fact that \u2018democratic choice is not necessarily available for all,\u2019 CRT can help to shape the manner in which the top is explored while also exposing the bias maintained by the author of this inquiry, who is a middle-class, white male,\u201d he wrote, citing a 1989 essay \u201cWhite Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by feminist Peggy McIntosh.<\/p>\n
The revelation that Hall had used critical race theory in his dissertation comes at a time when DeSantis has demonized the framework as an effort by Democrats to indoctrinate students to a leftist ideology. DeSantis has consistently used critical race theory to stir his political base ahead of his 2022 reelection as he continues to build a national profile among Republicans.<\/p>\n
DeSantis last week proposed new legislation to prevent students and corporate employees from being subjected to lessons derived from critical race theory. The legislation would allow parents to sue their local school districts if they are caught teaching critical race theory in the classroom and seeks to root out sensitivity and racial awareness training taking place at companies like Bank of America and Verizon.<\/p>\n
Shortly after he heralded the proposed bill, DeSantis\u2019 campaign sent out a fundraising email touting the \u201cStop W.O.K.E. Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe adoption of woke ideologies like Critical Race Theory is the left\u2019s latest method to delegitimize America\u2019s institutions and our founding principles,\u201d the fundraising pitch read. \u201cFrom schools to corporations, Democrats are working to indoctrinate our nation\u2019s youth with hatred \u2014 hatred towards one another and towards America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s Board of Education earlier this year even passed a rule preventing teachers from going \u201crogue\u201d in the classroom by leading lessons that include pieces of critical race theory, alleging it and similar works “distort historical events.”<\/p>\n
Critical race theory is an analytical framework originally developed by legal scholars examining how race and racism have become ingrained in American law and institutions since slavery and Jim Crow. Many conservatives began using critical race theory as shorthand for a broader critique of how race and social issues are being taught in the K-12 education system. Most public school officials across the country say they do not teach the theory, even in districts where lawmakers are seeking to ban it.<\/p>\n
DeSantis\u2019 office says Hall now believes that \u201cCRT has no place in our schools.\u201d But the governor\u2019s office and the juvenile justice department would not make Hall available for an interview.<\/p>\n
DeSantis\u2019 communications director, Taryn Fenske, said she was \u201caware\u201d of Hall\u2019s dissertation because they worked together when both were at the Florida Department of Education. She did not return a request seeking comment about whether DeSantis was aware of Hall\u2019s previous stance.<\/p>\n
Fenske defended Hall as having \u201climited choices for doing statistical qualitative studies\u201d within his department at the University of South Florida. His only two choices, she said, were critical race theory or female gender studies. Critical race theory was a better choice for his dissertation because, at that point in his career, he was studying how to reduce the number of Black youths in the juvenile justice system, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that in some instances when you go through a doctoral program you have a committee that\u2019s going to lean a certain direction and why students have to cater their work to that,\u201d Fenske said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The University of South Florida did not return a request seeking comment about whether this was an accurate description of their program.<\/p>\n
In his dissertation, Hall said one of his biggest blind spots as an academic was his inherent privilege being a white man.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not intentionally fail to see or listen when sleeping in this advantaged life of White privilege, but in awakening from this sleep, I can now lead an existence focused on exposing inequity and its effects,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He described critical race theory as a useful tool with which to study inequality in public education.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on the counter stories that I have heard and my own observations that support the marginalization of youth of color in the juvenile system, a critical perspective has evolved; a perspective which seeks to uncover practices which perpetuate racial inequality and have silenced social justice efforts for some of our nation\u2019s most promising students,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n