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FLORIDA APPROVES BLACK HISTORY STANDARDS DECRIED AS ‘STEP BACKWARD’

By Lori Rozsa
Updated July 20, 2023 at 8:30 p.m. EDT|Published July 19, 2023 at 1:39 p.m. EDT

Restaurant patrons watch as demonstrators protest the state's decision not to
approve a new AP course on African American history in February in Tallahassee.
(Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)

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The Florida State Board of Education approved new rules Wednesday for how Black
history will be taught in public schools that critics are decrying as a “step
backward.”

The updated standards say students should learn that enslaved people “developed
skills” that “could be applied for their personal benefit,” and that in teaching
about mob violence against Black residents instructors should note “acts of
violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”



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“These standards are a disservice to Florida’s students and are a big step
backward for a state that has required teaching African American history since
1994,” the Florida Education Association (FEA), the state’s largest teachers
union, said in a statement.

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The standards are the latest development in an ongoing debate in Florida over
how Black history should be taught in school. Earlier this year, the education
board rejected a new Advanced Placement high school course on African American
studies, arguing it lacked “educational value,” igniting protests and outrage.

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Meanwhile, the state legislature has passed a raft of new laws backed by
Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who contends
the measures remove “woke indoctrination” and empower parents. The laws ban the
teaching of critical race theory, an intellectual movement that examines the way
policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism, and forbid teachers from offering
instruction that makes other students “feel guilt” because of actions committed
by others in the past.

Education Commissioner Manny Diaz argued at Wednesday’s meeting in Orlando that
the changes to the Black history curriculum make it more “robust.”

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“I think this is something that is going to set the norm for standards in other
states,” Diaz said, adding that Florida would continue to “teach the good, bad
and the ugly of American history” in an age-appropriate manner.

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But critics said the dozens of new “benchmark clarifications” to the existing
Black history curriculum water down that history. The changes include teaching
elementary school children to “recognize Rosa Parks and Thomas Jefferson as
individuals who represent the United States.” The FEA criticized the approach,
saying it excludes a deeper teaching of their “histories and struggles” in favor
of easy identification and memorization.

Vice President Harris criticized the new Florida benchmarks in a speech in
Indianapolis on Thursday.

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“Speaking of our children, extremists pass book bans to prevent them from
learning our true history — book bans in this year of our Lord 2023. And while
they do this, check it out, they push forward revisionist history,” Harris said.
“Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students
will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an
attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”

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Genesis Robinson, political director of Equal Ground, a voter education group,
said the new standards omit important lessons regarding the history of civil
rights in Florida and ultimately dehumanize people of color.

“Black history is more than being able to identify well-known Black people,” he
said.

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A spokesman for DeSantis did not respond to a request for comment. Alex
Lanfranconi, communications director for the state Department of Education,
echoed Diaz’s remarks on Twitter, saying the new standards “teach it all.”

“Don’t believe the union lies,” he wrote.

More than a dozen speakers at Wednesday’s board meeting opposed the changes,
including state Sen. Geraldine Thompson (D), who helped pass a law in 2020 that
requires schools to teach lessons about the Ocoee Massacre. The incident in 1920
began when several Black residents attempted to vote, and ended with as many as
60 people dead, making it the deadliest instance of Election Day violence in
U.S. history.

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Thompson said the new curriculum “suggests that the massacre was sparked by
violence from African Americans. That’s blaming the victims. ”

State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D) said she was concerned about inaccuracies in the
new standards, including instructing that enslaved people “developed skills”
that could be helpful.

“That is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish,” she said.

The board passed the new standards unanimously.

DeSantis and state lawmakers have reshaped how sensitive issues such as race and
gender identity are addressed in the classroom in a way that has elicited both
outcry and applause. Critics contend the governor has effectively silenced
already vulnerable groups. Meanwhile, a turbocharged “parents’ rights” movement
has praised his work, saying they want more involvement in things like what
books their children have access to in the library.

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The board on Wednesday simultaneously pushed forward with adopting rules that
align with newly passed laws restricting bathroom use for transgender students
based on their sex assigned at birth and prohibiting the use of preferred
pronouns in schools.

Kathleen Murray, executive director of Duval County Citizens Defending Freedom,
a grass-roots organization heavily involved in education issues, spoke out in
favor of the restrictions, saying schools have become “unrecognizable” since she
graduated from a Broward County high school nearly a quarter-century ago.

“Our organization represents the vast majority of Duval County parents who
believe in the science of biology and the First Amendment, which supports
educators in speaking the truth by calling biological boys and girls by their
correct pronouns,” Murray said. “We’re saddened that this amendment is
necessary, but grateful to the Florida legislators who codified policy that
supports true science and free speech.”

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