House lawmakers make a promise: African American history will be taught in FL’s public schools

Recalling the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the murder of Medgar Evers, and the killing of a young Black teen named Emmett Till, state House lawmakers made it clear Thursday that African American history instruction must endure in Florida’s public schools.

The entire House chamber approved a bipartisan, unanimous bill — 116 -0 — to require that “each school district must annually certify and provide evidence” to the state Department of Education that students will get that instruction.

Across Florida, school districts for decades have been required to provide African American history instruction in all public schools. But that’s not always been the case. Several lawmakers in both the House and Senate have been concerned about a lack of consequences when African American history has not been provided to children.

And tensions have been high over issues such as the DeSantis administration’s rejection earlier this year of a pilot advanced placement high school course on African American studies.

In February, Floridians, civil rights activists, and religious leaders marched to the Florida Capitol building complex in protest of efforts to “whitewash” Black history.

On Thursday, State Rep. Christopher Benjamin, a Democrat and attorney who represents part of Miami-Dade, made reference to the rejected AP course in the House chamber. He is a co-sponsor of the legislation, HB 551, along with State Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican representing part of Brevard County.

“How do we know if African-American studies is actually being taught in the state of Florida?” Rep. Benjamin said.

That’s why he wanted to make that “every year there would be reporting requirements as to what is being taught and how it is being taught and to whom is teaching it,” Benjamin said.

Members of the House stood up to congratulate Benjamin.

Republican Chase Tramont, representing parts of Brevard and Volusia, told colleagues, “It’s an honor to support this bill. As a teacher of American history for a number of years, not only do my students leave knowing who Martin Luther King Jr. was; they knew who Emmett Till was; they knew who Medgar Evers was. And this bill goes to ensure that all students will have a true, not just an understanding, but an appreciation for our entire host of American history, the good, the bad, the ugly. God bless you, my friend.”

Rep. Fine also spoke eloquently and purposely about the African American history instruction in public schools.

“We can disagree about whether ideology should be taught in the classroom but we can’t disagree on whether history should be taught in the classroom,” Fine said. “On the notion of teaching history, on making sure our children understand what is great and the mistakes that we have made in this country, on that there should no disagreement.”

Details

Here’s more about the legislation from Thursday:

Each school district must submit an implementation plan to the commissioner and post the plan on the school district’s website. The implementation plan must include all of the following:

• The methods by which instruction will be delivered for each grade level.
• The professional qualifications of the instructional personnel.
• A description of the instructional materials.
• In addition, the State Board of Education may initiate certain actions if a school district fails to comply with the requirements for African American instruction.

At issue, though, is that the House has approved the bill, but the Senate has yet to do so.

And earlier this week, state senators had some concerns about the Senate version (SB 804).

“On the face, it looks quite innocent,” said State Sen. Tracie Davis, representing parts of Duval County.

But it’s really not.

The first part of the bill discussed annually certifying and providing evidence to ensure kids will get the African American instruction in their classrooms.

However, “the bill expands entities from whom the DOE [Department of Education] may seek input regarding standards and curriculum from state or national African American organizations, and authorizes the DOE to contract with state or national African American educational organizations to develop training for instructional personnel and classroom resources,” according to a legislative analysis.

But the senators asked about what kind of organizations? Nothing was listed. And it wasn’t clear if some other groups might be related to ideologies that would not be appropriate for the African American history instruction in Florida.

Meanwhile, as the House was approving HB 551 on Thursday, senators on the Fiscal Policy Committee on Thursday were discussing a contentious higher education bill, SB 266, that became tense as Black lawmakers and other policy advocates discussed what was happening in the bill.

Lawmakers were concerned about general courses and issues about diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory.

Some people testified that Florida’s university system will falter, ruining college rankings and losing faculty members; other said they may not send their own children to Florida’s universities given how the bill is shaping out.