Florida bans 54 math books to keep our schools mediocre

Those who thought Florida would limit its crackpot crackdown on legitimate ideas in schools to social studies and history didn’t grasp the full range of narrow-mindedness: last week the state proudly banned 54 math books, warning publishers to get outlawed content out of print.

How, even in Tallahassee, could 41% of all the math books the state reviewed for use in the public schools be so objectionable as to be outlawed? 

How, in fact, could any math book be objectionable on the grounds that Tallahassee used to outlaw them? 

According to Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, 28 of the outlawed books had “prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT.” 

CRT is critical race theory, which is taught largely in law schools and sets a framework to examine systemic racism. Can you imagine any way of teaching critical race theory in a math textbook? No publisher would try. How could anyone, even in Tallahassee, read critical race theory into 2+2=4?

Understandably, the announcement from Mr. Corcoran doesn’t offer a single example of such objectionable concepts as teaching law school theory in third grade math – or any other example of why books were rejected.

Maybe the Tallahassee gatekeepers just didn’t like textbook drawings that might be interracial groups of children.

There certainly weren’t any math problems like this: Little Johnny, who is Black, had 4 apples and Little Billy, who is white, has 3. How many of Johnny’s apples does Billy have to take away from him to get 6?

There were other reasons for rejecting the math texts: 12 “didn’t properly align to B.E.S.T. standards,” the state’s approved methods of teaching, and 14 were excluded because they not only didn’t align to those standards but also “incorporated prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT.”

Even if we take those highly questionable state academic standards as gospel, that means that books excluded for non-math reasons total 42 – that’s 28+14=42, according to the old-fashioned grammar school math we learned before the new B.E.A.S.T. standards were even created [and, yes, I do mean B.E.A.S.T.].

It would be one thing if the state were actually selecting books based on academic standards, choosing those that best teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions. If that were the case, it would be excluding books that don’t clearly explain math fundamentals to improve student performance.

But that would assume that Florida was trying to protect a high level of education performance. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

First, the reasons Mr. Corcoran lays out are all about political correctness – if you assume for a moment that what the current Florida leadership believes is correct. What I know about math says that from arithmetic through calculus, political thought plays absolutely no role – at least, outside of Tallahassee. There is no such thing as conservative addition or liberal subtraction. In fact, 1+1=equals 2 in every political jurisdiction on earth – except Tallahassee, that is.

Second, preserving Florida’s standards means preserving mediocrity. The latest national ratings of Florida’s public school education as a whole from Edweek gives us a nice mediocre C rating. That means we’re passable. Is that the kind of education level we’re trying to preserve with these edicts? 

We’re far ahead of Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nevada and New Mexico but far behind leaders New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland and New York. But at least our third graders will not be taught critical race theory. Mediocre, but protected from something that has never been taught in the public schools to this point. What a victory, hailed by the governor.

“I’m grateful that Commissioner Corcoran and his team at the department have conducted such a thorough vetting of these textbooks to ensure they comply with the law,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis, obviously speaking of the laws of ignorance.

As it is, the department crows that “every core mathematics course and grade is covered with at least one textbook” of the 78 books that were not charged with slipping law school materials into their 2+2s. What a great victory – the state didn’t just plain ban everything.

The aim, of course, has little to do with Florida schools and much to do with changing what an entire nation of youngsters can be allowed to know. The state points out that “publishers … have the ability to substitute or revise their submitted bids to be included on the state’s adopted list” by having their books meet Florida’s specifications. That means changing what can be taught in 50 states. 

What we learned from this political circle’s dictatorship over math texts adds up to a small fraction of Floridians dividing us by subtracting content and multiplying tangential fears in their calculus of political control with zero tolerance – making less than zero sense.

Dick and Jane should be terrified of the Spot we’re in.