Florida Releases Examples of ‘Problematic’ CRT Elements in Textbooks

The Florida Department of Education this week shared a handful of examples showcasing “problematic elements” of recently reviewed textbook materials for students, some of which provide a chart measuring “racial prejudice,” which suggests that conservatives are more prejudiced than liberals.

The Sunshine State made waves this week after rejecting 41 percent of submitted math textbooks for students due to the inclusion of Common Core and Critical Race Theory (CRT). 

As a result of what the department described as a “volume of requests” for examples of the “problematic elements of the recently reviewed instructional materials,” it showcased some examples. 

“These examples do not represent an exhaustive list of input received by the Department,” the department said in a disclaimer, making it clear that it is continuing to give publishers a chance to “remediate all deficiencies identified during the review to ensure the broadest selection of high quality instructional materials are available to the school districts and Florida’s students.”

One of the examples provided shows CRT in a math textbook. In an application exercise, students are presented with a bar graph based on the Implicit Association Test, which supposedly measures levels of racial prejudice. Another bar graph uses this test to measure racial prejudice based on party identification, and ultimately, it suggests that conservatives are more racially prejudiced than members of the far-left.

Another screenshot shows a section on adding and subtracting polynomials, where it, yet again, references the Implicit Association Test.

Another snippet shows a section dubbed “social and emotional learning,” with a goal of students building “proficiency with social awareness as they practice with empathizing with classmates.” 

The problematic instructional materials can be viewed here. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has defended his administration’s moves, making it clear that there is no need for “things like social and emotional learning and some of the other things that are more political” in textbooks, adding that it “doesn’t meet” the state’s standards.

“If a book does the Common Core math then that would obviously be inconsistent with the standards. When you do social, emotional learning, CRT, things like that into a math program just simply violates the standards,” he said.

“I think what parents in Florida want to know is, can I send my kid to be educated or am I basically sending them to get indoctrinated with whatever some of these people in the education establishment from up on high do,” he added.