Florida has rejected dozens of social studies textbooks and worked with publishers to edit dozens more, the Florida Department of Education announced Tuesday. It’s part of the latest effort under Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove textbooks with controversial topics, particularly around contemporary issues of race and social justice. .
State officials initially rejected 82 of the 101 textbooks submitted due to “inaccuracies, errors, or other information inconsistent with Florida law,” the Department of Education said in a news release. That’s what it means.
But as part of a broader effort to revise the materials, Florida worked with publishers to make changes and ultimately approved 66 of the 101 textbooks. Even after going through that process, 35 applications were still rejected.
DeSantis, a Republican, has campaigned against what he calls “woke indoctrination” and left-wing policies in the classroom. Last year, the state rejected dozens of math textbooks because they touched on banned topics that have been targeted by the right, including critical race theory and social-emotional learning.
States review social studies textbooks every few years, and similar opposition was widely expected.
The state Department of Education released a document outlining several revisions made at the request of publishers. However, the document does not list the revised book’s title or publisher, making the claims difficult to independently verify.
The proposed changes outlined by the state include:
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Elementary school textbooks do not include “family support” instruction on how to talk about singing the national anthem. The guidance included advice that parents “can use this as an opportunity to talk about why some members of the public choose to ‘kneel’ in protest against police brutality” Racism. ” Florida officials said the content was not age appropriate.
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Documents on various types of economies were edited to remove references to socialism as keeping things “beautiful and equal” and potentially promoting greater equality. This explanation was flagged as inaccurate, and references to the term “socialism” were removed entirely.
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Middle school textbooks no longer include passages about the Black Lives Matter movement, the killing of George Floyd and its impact on society. The deleted text described the protests and said that while “many Americans sympathized with the Black Lives Matter movement,” others criticized the looting and violence and viewed the movement as anti-police. It pointed out. The state said the text contained “unwanted subject matter.”
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said in a statement that textbooks should “focus on historical facts” and “eliminate inaccuracies and ideological rhetoric.”
Racial education has become a lightning rod across the country, but especially in Florida, where Mr. DeSantis, who is widely expected to announce a presidential bid in 2024, has made it a key political issue.
However, the tone of this year’s announcements by the state has softened compared to last year.
When the state rejected a math textbook in 2022, it announced in a flashy news release highlighting its rejection: “Florida rejects publishers’ attempts to indoctrinate students.”
This year, by contrast, state officials emphasized the percentage of textbooks approved and how the state worked with publishers to increase approval numbers.
At a news conference Tuesday morning at a traditional charter school, Mr. DeSantis signed a series of education bills and highlighted other items on his agenda, including $1 billion in funding to increase teacher pay.
The governor placed little emphasis on social studies textbooks, but at one point the New York Times discovered that publisher Studies Weekly had recanted discussion of race in a Florida post. seemed to be referring to the report. The story of Rosa Parks.
“If you’re trying to create a narrative that things like Rosa Parks’ books aren’t allowed, that’s a lie,” DeSantis said Tuesday.
Studies Weekly said it was trying to “decipher” how to comply with Florida’s new law, known as the Stop WOKE law. The law, signed by Mr. DeSantis last year, prohibits teaching that forces students to feel responsible, guilty or distressed for past actions of other members of their race. The law sometimes caused confusion, and Studies Weekly later apologized, saying it was an overreaction by the curriculum team.
(Studies Weekly social studies submissions were not approved for use in the State of Florida.)
A list of state-approved social studies textbooks will have a major impact on how history is taught to Florida’s nearly 3 million public school students, from slavery and Jim Crow to the Holocaust. .
Approval of Florida’s textbooks could also affect learning for students in other states. Less than half of the states approve textbooks at the statewide level, including the three largest markets: Florida, Texas, and California. Publishers often cater to these states and use them as templates for materials they offer to smaller markets.
Florida has rejected some textbooks from major national publishers, including McGraw-Hill and Savas Learning.
“We are reviewing the situation,” McGraw-Hill said in a statement. “At this time, we do not know why these titles were not recommended.” Zavas did not He responded to a request for an interview on Tuesday.
Another major publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, didn’t even bid on Florida’s social studies market this year.
Adam Raats, an education historian at Binghamton University, said American publishers have been revising textbooks for more than a century to allay political concerns, sometimes using a razor’s edge to reduce content on topics such as evolution and Reconstruction. He said he had deleted it.
Ratz said calls for censorship of school materials often come from conservatives, and the Florida announcement echoed old battles. He noted that the country’s policymakers asked a publisher to remove discussion of athletes kneeling during the national anthem, citing “age appropriateness.”
Professor Raatz said that while the subject of police violence may indeed be disturbing to children, the state did not object to other references to violence and death being made on the very same page of the lesson. , he said. Their lives were for us,” the text reads.
“Using age appropriateness is a strategic or tactical move,” he said, adding that “parents and other stakeholders tend not to like the idea of important information being cut out of textbooks.” Yes,” he added. However, parents like the idea of age-appropriateness. ”