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Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced the Civic Literacy Excellence Initiative. This is a $106 million proposal aimed at making Florida a leader in civics education.
This comes as many schools are pushing critical race theory, social-emotional learning, and more.
“A high-quality education begins with high-quality curriculum, which is why I remain laser-focused on developing the best possible civics education standards,” said Governor DeSantis at the time of announcing this initiative.
“This initiative will promote high-quality civics education for Florida students and reward classroom educators who choose to participate in advancing civics education in their classrooms.”
“Florida’s civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory and other unsubstantiated theories,” DeSantis added.
The Florida Department of Education website said:
The funding will be used to create and award qualified teachers with the Florida Civics Seal of Excellence, which includes a $3,000 stipend for educators who complete training to earn the endorsement. The funding will also be used for Florida’s civics curriculum and to support the implementation of Florida’s revised civics and government standards in Florida’s K-12 public schools.
“The Civic Literacy Excellence Initiative is an all-in approach to fully elevate civic literacy and education for Florida’s students and teachers, beyond any state in the nation,” said Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran.
“Florida’s continued commitment to lead and foster the values we hope to see in our society will not only help develop great students but will create humble, civically-minded citizens of tomorrow.
The CLEI will promote patriotism and civics in the classroom, rather than alternatives like the 1619 Project.
The Florida Department of Education said, “Oral history resources to be used along with the civic education curriculum. Resources will highlight patriotism based on the personal stories of diverse individuals who demonstrate civic-minded qualities, including first person accounts of victims of other nations’ governing philosophies who can compare those philosophies with those of the United States. This program is currently under development and we anticipate first resources for the start of the 2022–2023 school year with full implementation for the 2023-2024 school year.”
Some Florida teachers are not on board with the initiative, however.
“It was very skewed,” said Barbara Segal, a 12th-grade government teacher at Fort Lauderdale High School. “There was a very strong Christian fundamentalist way toward analyzing different quotes and different documents. That was concerning.”
“It is disturbing, really, that through these workshops and through legislation, there is this attempt to both censor and to drive or propagandize particular points of view,” said Richard Judd, 50, a Nova High School social studies teacher.
However, DeSantis believes this is the best way forward.
“Now the progressive activists’ CRT agenda is not only in education, but also in corporate boardrooms and employee trainings at some of America’s most powerful corporations,” the governor’s office explained in a news release. “Workers are subjected to trainings pushing the falsehoods that America is a ‘white supremacist’ country, and that white Americans are ‘raised to be racist’ from early childhood. These divisive narratives and indoctrination programs create a hostile environment in violation of our laws and principles.”
