Commentary: Florida’s latest ideological battle ground: teacher training – By Sam LaFrance and Katie Blankenkship (Orlando Sentinel) / Feb 3, 2024
A new Florida bill could create a generation of history teachers who are unsure how to teach classes about the Civil Rights Movement or women’s suffrage, art teachers who are unable to explain how identity influences art, and science teachers who can’t talk about sexual reproduction without fear of legal retaliation. And it would do so while putting the integrity of teacher training programs in serious jeopardy.
And if those dire consequences were not enough, Senate Bill 1372, if passed, would undermine the integrity and independence of higher education, opening the door for further censorship and further political meddling. The bill illustrates how censorship can take a wrecking ball to the relationship between higher ed and K-12, threatening the freedom to learn for all.
The bill sets the censors’ sights on educator preparation programs in public and private colleges and universities. Were this bill to become law, these programs — which are common routes for Floridians to be licensed and certified to teach in their own state — would be prohibited from incorporating courses that include “identity politics” or any concepts listed in the Stop WOKE Act, the 2022 anti-critical race theory state law that is currently blocked by the courts. These programs also could not teach anything based on “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.”
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