On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that while he thinks Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is “demagoguing” the issue of education, schools inserting political messages in lessons is a problem that “does exist. It is real. So, again, I don’t know why Democrats do this to themselves.” And “textbooks are written by a certain type of people…the type who would” put things about racism in math books.
Maher stated, “[I]t hinges on whether there really is something going on in the schools that never was going on there before and maybe shouldn’t be going on there. So, we got information today about this. Because this is about what is going on in schools all across the country, but Florida is, of course, the focal point because it’s Florida. So, they took out 41 textbooks, math textbooks. And at the beginning of the week, we didn’t know why. They said there [are] things in there that are inappropriate for children. Today, they released four examples. This just happened before we came out here, I read through them. A lot of it, I feel like…it’s like kids should have empathy when they’re learning. Fine, I’m okay with that. Most of it, I thought was kind of a nothing burger, but here’s one…this is a math question, measuring racial prejudice by political identification. … I mean, this is teaching math. And why use that example?”
He later added, “I don’t think this is typical, I think they…picked 41 books and they have four examples. Of the examples, this was the most egregious. But it does exist. It is real. So, again, I don’t know why Democrats do this to themselves. I think DeSantis is demagoguing this issue. Because I think he thinks this is a great way to be the candidate in 2024 by owning the libs on gays and kids and Pluto and Goofy f*cking each other or whatever insanity they’re going to — but I also think textbooks are written by a certain type of people…the type who would put some bullshit like that in a math book, that type of people.”
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