Move over, Florida Man.
It’s time to make room for… Florida Men and Women Who Are Using Their Children and Other People’s Children as Pawns in a Cynical, Phony Culture War Meant to Drive Democrats Out of Office.
Doesn’t exactly fit on a bumper sticker.
But it’s the best way to describe what’s happening in The Sunshine State.
Late last week, Florida’s Education Department rejected 54 math books, claiming some of the texts referred to critical race theory, or CRT, and other “prohibited topics.”
In a statement released on Friday, the department explained it had rejected 54 of the 132 math textbooks it reviewed, which comes out to 41 percent overall.
“The highest number of books rejected were for grade levels K-5, where an alarming 71 percent were not appropriately aligned with Florida standards or included prohibited topics and unsolicited strategies,” the statement said.
The issue of CRT has been cause for national debate for some time now.
One can agree or disagree on whether or not this is a valid concept and/or if it’s something parents ought to be concerned about.
But… unsolicited strategies? CRT playing a role in math books?!?
The department defended its seemingly unusual position by saying 28 of the books were rejected specifically because they “incorporate… CRT.”
Lists of the submitted and accepted books that were made available did not say how the rejected books referred to critical race theory, considering, it bears repeating, these are MATH BOOKS.
MATH BOOKS, you guys.
“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,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said of his state’s move.
As you might expect, the widespread book rejection has prompted quite a response from the general public — and also from a handful of late-night talk show hosts.
“This official censorship isn’t just affecting history class, because this weekend we learned that Florida rejected 41 percent of new math textbooks. At least they think it’s 41 percent,” quipped Stephen Colbert, adding:
“For some reason, they suck at math.”
Joked Trevor Noah:
“Math textbooks would be the worst place to do it, because who remembers anything they learned in math, huh? Huh? Do you remember how to use a hypotenuse?”
The Daily Show host also hearkened back to a classic kids’ joke:
“Don’t get me started on the violence inherent in math. I will never forget the day 7 8 9. Scarred me for life.”
Jimmy Kimmel also got in the following jabs:
“If you don’t know what critical race theory is, don’t worry, neither does Governor Ron DeSantis, don’t worry.
“Thanks to his important work, Florida has rejected more than 50 math books after the team uncovered sentence problems like, ‘Jamal has seven apples.’ They felt Jamal sounded suspicious.
“And where did he get the apples? Does he have a receipt for them?”