Florida approved new standards for African American history Wednesday that state officials called “robust” and claimed address “the darkest part of our history,” but critics said they will leave public school students with a whitewashed version that does not deal with the “ugliness of what has happened to Black people” nor focus much on the last 150 years.
The State Board of Education adopted the standards at its meeting in Orlando after hearing from dozens of people, most of whom urged the board to table its vote. The standards spell out what students should learn about African American history in kindergarten through high school.
“This is robust curriculum,” said Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, whose staff devised the new standards and urged the board to approve them. “I think this is something that is going to set the norm for standards in other states.”
Diaz added, “if anyone takes the time to actually look at the standards, you can see everything is covered.”