On Friday, the Sunshine State’s education commissioner announced that 41% of all math textbooks submitted had been rejected for failing to meet the state’s new standards — including the ban on critical race theory.
“It seems some publishers were trying to put a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, to elementary school students,” Florida Gov said. Ron DeSantis, who advocated passage of the “Stop WOKE Act,” which aims to limit perceived liberal concepts in the school curriculum.
According to a statement from the Florida Department of Education, many of the textbooks were rejected because they “contain prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT.” (CRT is a concept that seeks to understand and address inequality and racism in the US. Critics suggest that the race is unnecessarily politicking — especially among young children.)
Other books were rejected because of the ‘unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics’. Yes! Why would we want our children to learn about social and emotional issues? That’s not a life skill! Guard…
Amazingly, about 7 out of 10 math books submitted for kindergarten through 5th grade were rejected by the Florida Education Commissioner.
What may seem outrageous — banning books is rarely good looks that lead to positive societal impact — to some, is a big win for DeSantis as he continues to use his role to lead a culture war against, uh, math.
“In Florida, we are taking a stance against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” DeSantis said when he introduced the “Stop WOKE Act” late last year. “We will not allow Florida taxpayers’ money to be spent teaching children to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to defend their rights when it comes to the upholding state standards.”
DeSantis, who is seeking a 2024 presidential election, has singled out a number of high-profile cultural fights that have bolstered his credibility with the Fox and MAGA wings of the Republican Party.
He is strongly opposed to mitigation measures to slow the spread of Covid-19. (Florida was one of the last states to close during the original spring 2020 outbreak and one of the first to reopen after the first wave.)
He advocated for civic literacy efforts aimed at educating students about the dangers of socialism and communism. “You have orthodoxy that is promoted, and other points of view are shunned or even suppressed,” DeSantis said of the moves. “We don’t want that in Florida. You have to have a real ideas contest, students shouldn’t be shielded from ideas, and we want a powerful First Amendment speech on our college and university campuses.”
And recently, DeSantis has taken over Disney after the company spoke out against what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which seeks to ban discussion of gender and sexuality among young college students.
DeSantis’s war against the so-called “woke” culture works for him, politically. He is consistently behind only former President Donald Trump in polls of the potential Republican field in 2024. His star is on the rise.
But the DeSantis administration’s latest move on math textbooks raises a simple yet profound question about the governor’s rise: How much is it costing schoolchildren in Florida?