TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A press release, titled, “Florida Rejects Publishers’ Attempts to Indoctrinate Students” remains on the Florida Department of Education’s website.
The release said the state is not including 41% of the math textbooks that were submitted for approval and said they were impermissible with Florida’s new standards or contained prohibited topics like critical race theory.
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When News 6 combed through the reviews given to us by the DOE, which were thousands of pages, we could only find one reviewer who said he could not recommend two books because they contain CRT.
Chris Allen, in his review of a book for grade levels 9 through 12, said, “based solely on the critical race theory elements, this book should not be considered for adoption.”
One of the questions reviewers were asked is whether the materials align with a rule prohibiting critical race theory in instructional materials, to which Allen responded with a one rating, which stands for very poor or no alignment, and said, “contains critical race theory which is prohibited.”
Allen made mention of a bar graph in the book titled “measuring racial prejudice, by age” and wrote, “students must answer 4 questions regarding this chart. emphasis that racism is embedded in American society dependent on age.”
Another review from Allen said he found the textbook to be agenda-driven and mentioned talk of vaccinations, which he said, “should not be discussed in a school setting, as it’s a parent’s choice.”
In that review, he wrote that he found the textbook contained critical race theory.
We found other examples, like reviewer Jordan Adams, who gave a three — or fair — alignment rating to the question regarding CRT, and explained it “may violate the rule’s prohibitions about racism being embedded in society and legal systems.”
Reviewer Rachel Schrimsher said in one of the textbooks she looked over there was a warm-up activity that included “a controversial topic regarding equal pay and discrimination.”
However, she said she still recommends the textbook for adoption.
News 6 did not find that any other reviewers cited the presence of CRT in the textbooks that were reviewed.