Jim Bratten
Mere weeks after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education Act, which prevents teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation to children between kindergarten and the third grade, he launched an effort to reform education standards and practices in the state.
As reported by Anders Hagstrom at Fox News, “Florida called for textbook submissions from publishers in 2021 in accordance with a 2019 executive order from DeSantis aimed at eliminating Common Core standards in the state.” Textbooks rejected “were impermissible with either Florida’s new standards or contained prohibited topics.”
In a statement DeSantis released with his announcement, he explained that “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 added, “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.”
As reported by Hagstrom, the Florida Department of Education stated in the announcement, “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.”
The DOE explained the reasons for refusing some math textbooks “included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics.” Also, DOE said that publishers could appeal their rejections.
Florida’s DOE rejected 41% of the 137 mathematics textbooks submitted, the highest rate in that state’s history.
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