The Florida Department of Education has rejected more than 50 math textbooks from next year’s curriculum, saying the books included references to critical race theory and other prohibited topics, including social emotional learning and Common Core. The state threw out 54 of the 132 books submitted for consideration, including a whopping 71% of the books submitted for elementary schoolers. Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said the books didn’t align with Florida’s new content rules, known as the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.).
Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed the decision and accused publishers of sneaking “indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism” into textbooks. The state did not list which textbooks it had rejected, or give examples of passages that ran afoul of the benchmarks. The announcement drew accusations of political motivation to energize Republican voters. As reported by The Washington Post, the reactions included this tweet from Democratic state Rep. Carlos G. Smith: “#DeSantis has turned our classrooms into political battlefields and this is just the beginning.”