New Florida academic standards guiding schools’ instruction about Black history have ignited heated debate nationally, bringing Vice President Kamala Harris to Florida to condemn the guidelines and prompting a defense from Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Backlash over the standards, approved Wednesday by the state Board of Education, centers largely on a part of the middle-school curriculum.
The standards include a provision that requires instruction to include “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”