"While Governor DeSantis and his administration may see “no educational value” in courses that teach Black history, fortunately for us, the enforcement of Florida Statutes is not predicated on his misguided opinion. In 1994, the state of Florida passed FS 1003.42 which requires the instruction of history, culture, experiences, and contributions of African Americans in the state’s K-12 curriculum. Yet less than 30 years later, we find ourselves simply asking our elected leaders to follow the law. The adoption of the Florida State Academic standards for social studies by the Florida Board of Education not only purposefully omits or rewrites key historical facts about the Black experience, but they ignore the legislative intent of Florida Statatue 1003.42.
Given many of these standards will not go into effect for the upcoming school year, we continue to call on the Florida Department of Education to reconsider the implementation of these standards and adopt many of the recommendations provided by critical stakeholders at today's meeting."
Genesis Robinson
Equal Ground, Political Director