The Florida Department of Education reported Friday that 41% of the proposed K-12 mathematics books for the 2022-2023 school year failed to meet state academic standards. This was due to their inclusion of controversial educational approaches such as Critical Race Theory principles.

“Grades K-5 saw the highest rejections. An alarming 71 percent of rejected books were not in compliance with Florida standards, or contained prohibited topics,” Florida’s D.O.E. added.

The Daily Wire reported in January 2020 that DeSantis had announced new academic standards for the state. These standards would replace the Common Core standards, which were implemented in 2010 in the state, just one year after he began pushing for their abandonment.

These new standards were called “Benchmarks For Excellent Student Thinking” or “B.E.S.T.” The press release that was sent out Friday stated that Florida’s government was clear in its instructions to textbook publishers during the 2021 submission process for the 2022-2023 school years. This would be the first year of “B.E.S.T.”

In June 2021, FDOE informed publishers that textbooks should conform to the B.E.S.T. The standards are state laws that govern required instruction. Publishers should also be aware that they cannot include unsolicited strategies like SEL in their instructional materials.

DeSantis is a long-standing opponent of Critical Race Theory in schools. The governor decried it as “poison” in June 2021 and said that Florida would have been happy to ban it.

Although SEL has existed for many decades, many people believe that it has become a vehicle to push many of the same principles as Critical Race Theory such as equity, privilege and systemic racism.

The Collaborative for Academic, Socio Emotional Leason says equity goes hand-in-hand with SEL.

Although SEL will not fix long-standing, deep-rooted inequalities in education, it can help schools foster understanding, examine biases and reflect on the impact of racism. It can also help them cultivate adult practices that close the opportunity gap and make school more inclusive. Schools can create high-quality educational opportunities for all students regardless of their socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, or other differences by doing this.

If these principles are included in Florida’s curriculums, they could be in violation of several Florida laws that protect students from concepts that could be considered progressive indoctrination. standards.

54 of the 132 books that were proposed for K-12 classes were rejected. The state can appeal to publishers.

DeSantis said in a press release that “I’m grateful Commissioner Corcoran, his team at The Department, have conducted such an extensive vetting of these books to ensure they comply with law.”