By Cassandra Fairbanks
Textbook publishers are caving to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and removing Critical Race Theory and other “woke” lessons from their materials to meet the state’s standards.
In April, the Florida Department of Education rejected 54 math textbooks for next school year due to “attempts to indoctrinate students.”
The move sparked outrage from the left, who pretended as though these were just standard texts, but the Florida DOE has now released four examples of reasons for the bans — including a Critical Race Theory inspired “racial bias” graph.
Following the rejections, several of the companies worked to remove the offending content.
According to the Florida DOE, 19 books have been edited to meet their standards and have been added to the list of approved materials.
“Publishers are aligning their instructional materials to state standards and removing woke content allowing the department of education to add 19 more books to the state adoption list over the past 17 days,” the Florida Department of Education announced.
According to a press release from the department in April, “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. 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 press release continued. “Despite rejecting 41 percent of materials submitted, every core mathematics course and grade is covered with at least one textbook.”
“It is unfortunate that several publishers, especially at the elementary school grade levels, have ignored this clear communication and have attempted to slip rebranded instructional materials based on Common Core Standards into Florida’s classrooms, while others have included prohibited and divisive concepts such as the tenants of CRT or other unsolicited strategies of indoctrination – despite FDOE’s prior notification,” the statement added.
Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said that his team plans to make sure Florida has the highest-quality instructional materials available.
“We’re going to ensure that Florida has the highest-quality instructional materials aligned to our nationally-recognized standards,” said 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.”
