Harris slammed the Florida Board of Education's unanimous decision on Wednesday to revise the state's black history curriculum, which critics argue whitewashes U.S. history, during a speech Thursday at the national convention for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. in Indianapolis. Chief among the criticisms is that standards require middle schools to teach students that slaves benefited from skills they learned.
“Extremists pass book bans to prevent [children] from learning our true history — book bans in this year of our Lord 2023. And while they do this, check it out, they push forward revisionist history,” Harris said. "Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”
DeSantis took to Twitter on Friday, the same day Harris is visiting the Sunshine State, to push back against her comments. "Democrats like Kamala Harris have to lie about Florida's educational standards to cover for their agenda of indoctrinating students and pushing sexual topics onto children," he wrote. "Florida stands in their way and we will continue to expose their agenda and their lies."
As a 2024 presidential candidate, DeSantis has campaigned on ending "wokeness" in public schools, arguing that it encourages "state-sanctioned racism" and encourages children to hate the U.S. It's also a key part of his strategy to become the pro-parent candidate as he attempts to defeat former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination. Last year DeSantis signed the Stop WOKE Act into law which prohibited critical race theory from being taught in public schools and determines how businesses and schools address race and gender.
DeSantis's campaign has faced a hurdle of problems in recent weeks, yet the campaign maintains they are the only team that is able to defeat President Joe Biden next year.
"The Harris-Biden administration is obsessed with Florida ... yet they ignore the chaos at the border, crime-infested cities, economic malaise, and the military recruitment crisis. Maybe if Biden’s granddaughter moved to Florida he’d actually visit her," DeSantis also tweeted.
Democrats like Kamala Harris have to lie about Florida's educational standards to cover for their agenda of indoctrinating students and pushing sexual topics onto children.— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) July 21, 2023
Florida stands in their way and we will continue to expose their agenda and their lies.
In January, DeSantis's administration rejected a College Board Advanced Placement course on African American history because “we want education, not indoctrination," the governor said.