WEEKLY ROUNDUP
Dispute over standards
TALLAHASSEE — New academic standards adopted by the state Board of Education this week that guide instruction about African American history have riled critics — including numerous teachers and Democratic lawmakers — as state officials defended the changes.
The new standards, approved by the state board Wednesday, are designed to guide lessons from kindergarten through high school.
“As age-appropriate, we go into some of the tougher subjects, all the way into the beginnings of the slave trade, Jim Crow laws, the civil-rights movement and everything that occurred throughout our history,” state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said.
For example, the kindergarten standards focus on teaching students about important historical figures.
“Recognize African American inventors and explorers (i.e., Lonnie Johnson [inventor], Mae C. Jemison, George Washington Carver),” the kindergarten standards require.
One part of the high-school standards directs students to describe “the contributions of Africans to society, science, poetry, politics, oratory, literature, music, dance, Christianity and exploration in the United States from 1776-1865.”
Ahead of what was nearly an hour of public comment, Diaz also pushed back on assertions by groups such as the Florida Education Association teachers union and the NAACP Florida State Conference that the standards “omit or rewrite key historical facts about the Black experience” and ignore state law about required instruction.
Members of the public who spoke out against the standards echoed some of the organizations’ criticisms and pointed to specific parts of the proposed curriculum.
“These new standards present only half the story and half the truth. When we name political figures who worked to end slavery but leave anyone who worked to keep slavery legal nameless, kids are forced to fill in the blanks for themselves,” said Carol Cleaver, an Escambia County science teacher.
Multiple Central Florida Democratic state lawmakers also were present at Wednesday’s meeting, joining educators who addressed the board in questioning the standards.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, pointed to part of the middle-school standards that would require instruction to include “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“I am very concerned by these standards, especially … the notion that enslaved people benefited from being enslaved. It’s inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish in our educational curriculum,” Eskamani said.
Sen. Geraldine Thompson, a Windermere Democrat, took issue with another part of the standards, citing a section requiring high-school instruction that “includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre.”
Thompson’s Senate district includes Ocoee, where Black people were killed on election day in 1920 by a mob of white residents. The violence took place after Moses Norman, an African American resident, was denied the right to vote.
Thompson objected to wording in the standards that said violence was perpetrated “by” African Americans.
“When you look at the history currently, it suggests that the massacre was sparked by violence from African Americans. That’s blaming the victim. When in fact, it was other individuals who came into the Black community and killed individuals, burned homes and schools and lodges,” said Thompson, a former teacher and college administrator.
But Paul Burns, chancellor of the Department of Education’s Division of K-12 Public Schools, disputed many of the criticisms of the new standards.
“For the folks in the media and in the teachers union who are watching, we want you to please pay close attention because you’ve been peddling, really, a false narrative,” Burns said.
‘BUREAUCRATIC MORASS’
The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and other plaintiffs this week filed a federal lawsuit accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis and other officials of failing “to realize the promise” of a 2018 constitutional amendment aimed at restoring voting rights of felons who have completed their sentences.
Calling Florida a “national embarrassment,” the lawsuit described a “bureaucratic morass” encountered by felons trying to find out if they are eligible to vote.
The issue is rooted in a controversial 2019 law that DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature passed to carry out the constitutional amendment. The law said voting rights would be restored “upon completion of all terms of their sentence including parole or probation.” It also required felons to pay “legal financial obligations” — fees, fines and other court costs — associated with their convictions before they could be eligible to vote.
Wednesday’s lawsuit accused state and local officials of thwarting the intent of what was known as Amendment 4, which 65 percent of Florida voters supported.
“The defendants have used the legislative process, criminal enforcement and taxpayer dollars to frustrate the will of Florida voters, as expressed in their overwhelming support for Amendment 4, to return the franchise to more than 1.4 million citizens in Florida,” the 74-page lawsuit, filed in the federal Southern District of Florida, said.
Defendants include DeSantis, Secretary of State Cord Byrd, supervisors of elections, county clerks of court, members of the state Commission on Offender Review, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass and Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon.
The lawsuit, in part, asks a judge to order the state “to establish a reliable statewide database that allows people with prior felony convictions” to determine whether they have outstanding legal financial obligations or are eligible to vote.
TAKING ON TURNOVER
Amid heavy turnover, New College of Florida officials are in the process of filling 36 faculty positions ahead of the fall semester.
New College has secured signed offer letters for 15 incoming visiting faculty members as it seeks to address what Provost Brad Thiessen called a “ridiculously high” level of turnover compared to previous years.
A presentation given Monday to a committee of the New College Board of Trustees detailed various reasons that faculty members will be “out for at least one semester.”
For example, six faculty members have retired, six have resigned and six took leave without pay. Another 16 faculty members will be out for reasons such as being assigned research leave or being on family leave.
The current vacancies would account for about a third of the small liberal-arts school’s total faculty, as the most recently published information on the New College website said the campus had 94 full-time faculty members. Fall classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 28.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The State Board of Education on Wednesday approved new academic standards for instruction about African American history, after numerous teachers from across Florida objected to the changes and asked the board to put the proposal on hold.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Florida cannot have safe and secure elections if people do not have clarity … and the state needs to own up to its responsibility.” — Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, on a lawsuit challenging the state’s implementation of a constitutional amendment aimed at restoring felons’ voting rights.