FLORIDA — Teachers throughout Florida are not allowed to teach students Critical Race Theory.
This decision became official following a vote by the State Board of Education on Thursday.
The vote happened during a meeting held at the FSCJ Downtown Campus, where Governor Ron DeSantis joined via video stream and more than two dozen people waited to share their thoughts and opinions during the ‘public comment’ portion of the meeting.Regardless of what side of the debate they were on, both sides agreed that they were there to speak in the best interests of the students.Critical Race Theory teaches students that racism is a social construct, that is woven into our legal system and policies--and not just something that grew from bias or prejudice.
Those who are for it say students deserve to learn the whole truth about American History.
“Without that, how do we prevent the next Tulsa?” Kevin Parker asked.
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Parker told Action News Jax Courtney Cole that he traveled from Osceola County to be apart of today’s conversation in Jacksonville.
“We can’t know where we’re going, unless we know where we’ve been. And by deleting that part of our history, that’s taking out a huge chunk of the story,” Parker passionately explained.
Those who are against Critical Race Theory being taught in school say it’s divisive.”I think this is a culmination of something we’ve been trying to do for quite a while. I wanted to make sure that the children are being taught the truth, not being taught based on a race theory, which to me is very bad for Black people to be reduced to race,” said Maria Peiro, a teacher who traveled to Jacksonville from Miami to share her opinion.
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Governor Ron DeSantis has also come out strongly against Critical Race Theory being taught in schools. He referred to it as, “nonsense ideology” that teaches “kids to hate each other.”Cole reached out to each Duval County School Board Member for their response to the State Board of Education’s decision. Vice-Chairman Darryl Willie responded in time for her deadline saying this:
The Duval County School District also sent me this statement via-email:
“The decision of the Florida State Board of Education today does not impact the district’s instructional program. Duval County Public Schools continues to build on a strong tradition of teaching American history. We also offer African American history both as an independent course elective at the high school level and as an important topic integrated through other curriculum including social studies, English language arts, and courses across grade levels. The district follows all required statutes and rules regarding standards and curriculum. Critical Race Theory, as an independent topic, is not included in state standards or state approved curriculum. The district remains committed to intellectual integrity and strengthening critical thinking skills of all students through the approved curriculum and its applications. Additionally, the district has recently been recertified as an “Exemplary School District” by the Florida Commissioner of Education’s African American History Task Force for adhering to the state’s required instruction of the history of African peoples and contributions of African Americans to society.”
Prior to the State Board’s vote today, Critical Race Theory was not being taught in any Florida Schools, grades K-12.However, Critical Race Theory is taught in more than 200 colleges and universities, nationwide according to CriticalRace.org, created by Williams Jacobson. 8 of those college/universities are here in Florida.