Dozens of math textbooks submitted by publishers for use in Florida schools have flunked because they contained prohibited content, including critical race theory, state officials said.
The announcement was made in a press release titled “Florida Rejects Publishers’ Attempts to Indoctrinate Students.” It did not include the names of any of the books or provide specific examples of the content that prompted their objections, reports Axios.
The Florida Department of Education issued a statement saying that 41 percent of math textbooks recently reviewed were “impermissible with either Florida’s new standards or contained prohibited topics.” That amounted to 54 texts out of 132 checked for compliance with the new Florida laws, reports CNN.
0f the 64 textbooks rejected:
- 28 (21%) of these books were “not included on the adopted list because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT,” the statement said.
- 14 (11%) were “not included on the adopted list because they do not properly align to B.E.S.T. Standards and incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT,” the statement added.
Strange as it may seem, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is not being taught in any public schools across the country, and that includes Florida, yet many Republican lawmakers – perhaps not really sure what CRT entails, are deathly afraid of it.
The education department described the review process as “transparent,” but did not name the rejected textbooks nor provide examples of passages that failed to meet the criteria.
Governor Ron DeSantis praised the education officials and added he was “grateful” to Richard Corcoran, the outgoing commissioner of education, and his team for the “vetting of these textbooks to ensure they comply with the law.”
“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.
State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-District 49, said in a tweet that the governor “has turned our classrooms into political battlefields.”
The president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association said she’d like to see the content that the department and DeSantis found problematic, per Click on Orlando. “Certainly in a math book, I can’t imagine what he’s talking about,” Wendy Doromal said.
