The state of Florida is governed by a very focused and talented group of politicians and administrators who are aware of the plans of the radical left, especially in education.
Instead of jump rubber-stamping the updated curriculum proposed by publishers and teachers’ unions, which appears to be the norm nationwide, the Florida Department of Education announced on Friday that they playing by a different set of rules.
The FDE announced that after a recent review, 41% of proposed K-12 mathematics books intended for use during the 2022-2023 public school year did not meet state academic standards due to their apparent inclusion of Critical Race Theory principles and other controversial approaches to education.
In total, 54 books out of 132 proposed books were rejected for K-12 classes.
“Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics,” Florida’s Department of Education said in a statement.
“The highest number of books rejected were for grade levels K-5, where an alarming 71 percent were not appropriately aligned with Florida standards or included prohibited topics and unsolicited strategies,” Florida’s D.O.E. added.
“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 in a statement accompanying the announcement.
“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.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) said in the statement.
In January 2020, The Daily Wire reported that “DeSantis announced new academic standards for the state, shoving out the Common Core standards that had been implemented in the state in 2010, just one year after he started pushing for jettisoning those standards.”
The new standards were titled, Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, or B.E.S.T.
According to the press release, Florida’s government had been straightforward in the instructions given to textbook publishers during the 2021 submittal process for the 2022-2023 school year, the first year B.E.S.T would be put into place:
In fact, FDOE proactively informed publishers in June 2021 that textbooks must align to the B.E.S.T. Standards, state laws regarding required instruction, and that they should not incorporate unsolicited strategies such as SEL in their instructional materials.
“We’re going to ensure that Florida has the highest-quality instructional materials aligned to our nationally-recognized standards,” Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said in a statement.
“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,” Corcoran added.
DeSantis has been an outspoken opponent of Critical Race Theory being allowed in classes.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been around for decades, but many believe it has recently transformed into a racist “equity at any cost” social justice movement. It has the same principles as Critical Race Theory, including equity, privilege, and systemic racism.
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social Emotional Learning, equity goes hand-in-hand with SEL:
While SEL alone will not solve longstanding and deep-seated inequities in the education system, it can help schools promote understanding, examine biases, reflect on and address the impact of racism, build cross-cultural relationships, and cultivate adult and student practices that close opportunity gaps and create a more inclusive school community.
The anti-racist (woke) propaganda such as CRT, Intersectionality, the 1619 Project, White Fragility, etc., will not so easily be used in the sunshine state due to the watchful eye of the Governor DeSantis and the Florida Board of Education.
Any state that has concerns about these subjects and materials, needs to simply follow suit, for their student’s mental state and scholastic success.
By: Eric Thompson, editor of EricThompsonShow.com. Follow me on Twitter and MagaBook
This story syndicated with permission from Eric Thompson, Author at Trending Politics