The Florida Department of Education recently announced that the state rejected over 50 math textbooks from the 2022-2023 school year curriculum due to critical race theory and other reasons.
The department stated that 54 out of 132 of the textbook options would not be accepted to the state’s adopted list because they did not meet Florida’s new standards or contained prohibited topics, CNN reported.
The list of rejected books makes up close to 41% of submissions, which is the most in Florida’s history.
Reasons for rejecting the 54 textbooks included references to critical race theory, “inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics,” the release stated.
Critical race theory has become a highly politicized topic in recent years, with those against it claiming the area of study is based on Marxism and should be seen as a threat to the American way of life.
However, scholars who study the theory say critical race theory looks at how a history of inequality and racism in America continues to impact American society today.
The sunshine state banned the subject from being taught in schools in June 2021. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that allowing critical race theory to be taught would teach children that “the country is rotten and that our institutions are illegitimate.”
According to the ban, instruction in schools must be “factual and objective,” and it specifically prohibits “theories that distort historical events” — including “the teaching of Critical Race Theory, meaning the theory that racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons.”
Florida has also prohibited the teaching of material from the 1619 Project, which is the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning project that reframes American history around the date of August 1619-when the first slave ship arrived on America’s shores.
The highest number of books thrown out was for grades K-5. Apparently, an “alarming” 71% were not aligned with Florida standards, or the books included prohibited topics.
Despite rejecting 41% of materials submitted, every core math course and grade is covered with at least one book, the release said.
DeSantis said he is grateful for the department’s thorough review of the books to see if 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,” the governor said.
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