BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The state of Florida has rejected at least 50 textbooks in its search for math materials aligning to the new Florida Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) Standards.
“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,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In Broward County, only 17 books were approved by the state and six others were not.
Nicole Mancini is the acting Chief Academic Officer at Broward Schools and she says there is a chance that the state’s rejection of books and subsequent appeals process may delay access to physical books in the fall.
“In the past year, unfortunately, we’ve had to deal with supply chain issues due to the pandemic, so the delay in our timeline definitely puts that in jeopardy,” Mancini said.
However, if this were to happen, students will have digital access to the material.
It was almost two weeks ago that the state announced it had rejected 54 of 132 math textbooks they allege were indoctrinating kids.
They say the math books were rejected because they included references to critical race theory, common core and the unsolicited addition of social emotional learning in math.
A few says later, the state finally released samples of their claims, but wouldn’t say what books they came from.
When asked if critical race theory can be found in their books, Mancini said that critical race theory is not found in any of their instruction materials that they use in their classrooms.
In Miami-Dade they say, “The district will not proceed with ordering and/or purchasing of mathematics instructional materials until concerns identified by the FLDOE have been resolved.”
Tyler Reed, a spokesman for educational publisher McGraw Hill, released a statement that says:
“We’re in communication with the Department of Education and expect to work with them to ensure that our programs are available and appropriate for Florida students.”