Florida Rejects Dozens of Math Textbooks Because of ‘Prohibited Topics’

Florida officials rejected dozens of textbooks for the 2022-2023 school year curriculum. Their main concern? Student “indoctrination.”

According to the New York Post, the state’s department of education banned 42 of 132 math textbooks that were proposed for grades K-12. Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said the decision was made after officials reviewed the books and found some of them contained “unsolicited strategies” and “prohibited topics,” such as references to critical race theory.

“It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement. “I’m grateful that Commissioner Corcoran and his team at the Department have conducted such a thorough vetting of these textbooks to ensure they comply with the law.”

Last year, DeSantis sign a law that prohibited K-12 educators from teaching CTR, which is an academic and legal framework that examines systemic racism in American society. The concept is usually taught in graduate-level courses. 

On Thursday, Florida’s DOE released a handful of examples from “problematic” material within the rejected textbooks. One of the texts contained math exercises titled “Measuring Racial Prejudice, by Age” and “Measuring Racial Prejudice, by Political Identification.”

Another objectionable exercise was titled “Adding and Subtracting Polynomials,” which set up an equation with the following questions: “What? Me? Racist?”

“We’re going to ensure that Florida has the highest-quality instructional materials aligned to our nationally-recognized standards,” Corcoran said. “Florida has become a national leader in education under the vision and leadership of Governor DeSantis. When it comes to education, other states continue to follow Florida’s lead as we continue to reinforce parents’ rights by focusing on providing their children with a world-class education without the fear of indoctrination or exposure to dangerous and divisive concepts in our classrooms.”

The publishers of the rejected books have the opportunity to appeal the DOE’s decision.