Today, Florida’s Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. sent a memo to all Florida school district superintendents in response to attacks by the White House.
“Following the adoption of these standards, the Biden Administration – led by Vice President Kamala Harris and Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardonah – have intentionally misrepresented our groundbreaking work,” Diaz wrote in the memo obtained by The Florida Standard.
“I am issuing this memo to reaffirm that we will be moving forward with implementing Florida’s new history standards,” the memo continued. “Despite the partisan and inaccurate criticism we have received, Florida’s thorough standards promote the teaching of accurate, detailed, and nuanced history free from political sanitation or indoctrination.”
The new stand-alone strand of African American History standards is a first for the state of Florida. Diaz says the guidelines build on the state’s continued efforts since 2019 to “teach our students unbiased African American history.”
Diaz says the Department assembled an august group of African American scholars and Florida educators and went through a rigorous process before the state board voted on the new guidelines.
“Let me be clear: we are not turning our backs on the great work of the African American History workgroup,” Diaz wrote.
“We will implement these standards swiftly, transparently, and honestly. I recommend you instruct the appropriate administrators and educators in your district to begin reviewing their lesson plans to ensure they build out adequate time to teach these African American History standards,” the memo concluded.
Florida Does Not Back Down From New History Standards (theflstandard.com)
