Black Lawmakers Press Justice and Education Departments to Investigate Florida’s Race Curriculum

The Congressional Black Caucus is pushing the White House, Justice Department and the Department of Education to adopt an “aggressive legal strategy” to scrutinize recent changes to Florida’s Black history curriculum.

The caucus wants the federal agencies to examine whether Florida school districts are violating federal discrimination law following changes to the curriculum in the state — from banning books covering racial themes to a recent decision to add language about the positive impacts of slavery.

Caucus Chairman, Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford said at a Thursday press conference he met with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona this week to discuss actions that might be taken. {snip}

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The departments have a number of tools. In June, the Madison County, Kentucky school district reached a settlement with Justice to resolve complaints of widespread harassment of Black and multiracial students. Earlier this week, the Education Department launched an investigation of Harvard University’s policies on legacy admissions.

Florida and its governor, GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, have been in the news much of the past year because of steps taken in addressing what DeSantis calls a “woke” agenda and liberal indoctrination in the classroom.DeSantis signed legislation last year directing the Florida Board of Education to set new standards, which resulted in the recent curriculum changes that say enslaved people benefited from skills that they learned.

In a tweet Thursday, the governor’s press secretary Jeremy Redfern criticized the move, saying: “The federal government wants to prevent teaching our nation’s history.” {snip}

Horsford said Thursday that what is happening in Florida highlights what many caucus members see as an attack on the rights of Black Americans across the country.

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“The attacks against black people and blackness are coordinated, well funded, coming from every side and they are about race,” he said {snip}

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