“We support the bill that bans the teaching of CRT, and we support the Department of Education and the governor’s decision to remove these textbooks,” says John Sternberger, president of Florida Family Policy Council.
“These are new textbooks,” he continues, “and what’s happening is activists are using something as generic as math, not even history—where arguably it might be more appropriate—or social studies. They’re using math to just slip in examples of things that are irrelevant and have to do with supporting some of the pre-suppositions of critical race theory.”
In other words, some woke textbook publishers are inserting the Marxist-based theory about race and white people into students' textbooks in a real-life example of Marxist propaganda blended with ordinary math.
"It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students," Ron DeSantis said in a statement.
"What we've seen is obviously a systematic attempt by these publishers to infiltrate our children's education by inviting topics such as Critical Race Theory [into] things that have nothing to do with math," Lieutenant Gov. Jeanette Nunez, also a Republican, told the "Fox & Friends" program.
"So Governor DeSantis obviously embarked on this journey to make sure our kids could be prepared for success,” Nunez continued. “He wanted to focus on reading, writing, math, civics, to make sure that they're not only prepared for student success but also to be good citizens."
Heritage Action for America is also praising Florida and its governor.
"This is a big deal," says Carson Steelman, press secretary for Heritage Action for America, the political arm of The Heritage Foundation. "Not only should CRT not be taught to students between kindergarten through fifth grade at all or in general, but also, if you think about it, they're using every single subject including math to try and indoctrinate our children, and that's completely unacceptable."
The issue of Critical Race Theory has not gone unnoticed at Heritage, a well-respected think tank, where Heritage Action launched the comprehensive project "Reject Critical Race Theory" last year to push back on the Left's secretive promotion of the controversial theory.
At least one Democrat in Florida's legislature is demanding a full list of the textbooks in question.
"I wonder if these math books highlighted statistics of racial disparities & that's what they don't like?," state Rep. Anna Eskamani asked on Twitter. "If those statistics make you uncomfortable, maybe do something about it instead of erase them?"
The state rep's response symbolized the Left's response to the Right's warnings about Critical Race Theory: Insist the claim is a "right-wing conspiracy" that is not true but also insist the topic is misunderstood or misrepresented.
Another left-wing tactic is to suggest CRT-related teaching is a history lesson about America's racist past, such as slavery and Jim Crow laws, and hence critics are racists who are embarrassed by that past.
It is unclear if DeSantis has introduced left-wing examples to the media and the public, but the savvy governor has a track record of anticipating the demands of his left-wing critics, then cornering them.
The announcement about "woke" textbooks comes at the same time Florida is battling criticism over the Parental Rights in Education bill, which prohibits instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for grades K-3. Disney employees have angrily forced their corporate CEO to oppose the new law after it passed.
"[DeSantis is] going to fight for kids, whether it's on this CRT stuff that they're trying to put in our books or also on the Disney issue," said Nunez. "I think that parents have responded with a tremendous positive attitude about this, and they really want to make sure that, in Florida, their kids are going to be taught, not indoctrinated."
