On Friday, the Florida Department of Education announced in a press release that the state will reject more than 50 math textbooks from the curriculum for the next school year, citing references to critical race theory (CRT) as one of the reasons for the rejections.
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The department said that 54 out of 132 textbook submissions would be rejected and not added because they did not comply with Florida’s fresh standards of prohibited topics, which include CRT. That means 41% of textbook submissions were rejected, which makes it the most in the history of Florida.
Critical race theory aims to look at how racism has molded every part of American society such as public policy and institutions such as the justice system.
Other than CRT, other reasons for rejecting the textbooks include, “inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics,” according to the press release.
Since 2020, anti-critical race theory efforts have reached over 35 states in the United States. Florida has been the most vigorous in trying to completely ban critical race theory from their schools by passing a bill that protects white teachers from “white guilt” and restricts how students learn about slavery and the ongoing impacts of racism.
From the Press Release:
“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,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “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.”
“We’re going to ensure that Florida has the highest-quality instructional materials aligned to our nationally-recognized standards,” said Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. “Florida has become a national leader in education under the vision and leadership of Governor DeSantis. When it comes to education, other states continue to follow Florida’s lead as we continue to reinforce parents’ rights by focusing on providing their children with a world-class education without the fear of indoctrination or exposure to dangerous and divisive concepts in our classrooms.”
The ban also states that “Examples of theories that distort historical events and are inconsistent with State Board approved standards include the denial or minimization of the Holocaust, and the teaching of Critical Race Theory.”
Florida will also ban the teaching of material from The 1619 Project, the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning project, which reframes the history of America around the date of August 1619, when the first slave shape arrived on the shores of America.
