Florida’s GOP-led government has some of the strictest rules on education and textbooks in the country, including the ban of critical race theory in classrooms. Recently on Friday, April 15, Florida’s Department of Education (FLDOE) announced that out of the 132 math books submitted for state review, 54 of them contained “prohibited topics,” and were banned. This ban marks the highest number of banned and rejected textbooks in Florida’s history and makes Florida rank third in the country for the number of book ban incidents in school.
“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,” the state’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis said in a statement. “I’m grateful that [Commissioner of Education Richard] Corcoran and his team at the Department have conducted such a thorough vetting of these textbooks to ensure they comply with the law.”
Many educators and students from outside and inside the state disagree with the textbook bans, especially the ones that allegedly include critical race theory.
“Critical Race Theory isn’t even taught in schools. There is a fundamental misunderstanding of what critical race theory is in our society. Critical race theory is so complex that it is not taught in second grade, it is not taught in sixth grade, not even in twelfth grade,” Barstow’s upper school English teacher, Mark Luce, told B-Line.
The textbooks’ rejection hinders students’ education, especially for students K-5. 71% of textbooks for that age range were rejected, leaving only books from one publishing company.
Florida schools remain confused as to why many of these textbooks were rejected. The Florida Education Association released a statement wondering why there isn’t more transparency.
While some textbooks were rejected on the prohibition of Critical Race Theory, others were prohibited on the basis of social emotional learning (which the FLDOE argues has critical race theory embedded in it). Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is defined as, “the process by which each student develops their capacity to integrate thought, emotion and behavior to achieve and accomplish important social tasks.”
The FLDOE said in a statement, “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.”
However, Mr. Luce responded to this claim by saying, “The idea that social and emotional learning is unimportant flies in the face of all research done on the importance of environment and learning.”
To Mr. Luce’s point, research on SEL indicates that, “These competences will foster better social adjustment and academic performance reflected in more interactive behaviors, lower behavioral problems and less emotional stress,” and that, “Social emotional learning enables students
to become more responsible, empathic and productive, promoting a dynamic participation in society and citizenship.”
As parents and staff dispute these rejections, students and teachers have to figure out how to go about class next school year. Given that 71% of textbooks for grades K-5, 20% for grades 6-8, and 35% for grades 9-12 were rejected, teachers are scrambling to find suitable alternatives. Given that education is vital for each and every student, limiting students by banning over half the learning material is not the best solution.
