State lawmakers and local leaders met at a Miami Gardens church Thursday night to discuss the new public school curriculum on Black history, an event that Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. pulled out of after he was initially scheduled to attend.
More than 100 people attended the nearly two-hour town hall for a passionate and heartfelt discussion.
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“This has to be followed through with action,” Miami-Dade County Public Schools board member Dr. Steve Gallon said.
Parents, teachers and students expressed their concerns with Florida's new controversial African American history curriculum.
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Diaz was supposed to sit on the panel to address concerns. In an X post Wednesday, he said he was visiting schools throughout the state, welcoming back students, parents and teachers for the first day of school.
State and local leaders called him out Thursday night.
"Manny Diaz is a coward,” Fedrick Ingram with the American Federation of Teachers said.
A working group consisting of 13 educators and academics, including nominations from the Commissioner’s African American History Task Force created the standards.
A spokesperson for Florida's education commissioner says the standards are in-depth and comprehensive. But critics say the standards are suppressing the bad parts of Black history and overstating the good parts, pointing out an update that requires teachers to talk about the skills African Americans gained while enslaved that could have led to their personal benefit.
"For us to be sitting here in 2023 and trying to say that there was a benefit to slavery is appalling,” said the president of the United Teachers of Dade, Karla Hernandez-Mats. "It is absurd to continue to see these racist actions."
Hernandez-Mats and other leaders are once again encouraging people to vote.
"This is probably one of the most important conversations we're having,” president of the Florida Education Association Andrew Spar said. "History is important. We should teach a complete and honest history, and we don't believe these standards go far enough."
"School is about to start,” Hernandez-Mats said. “Teachers have this chilling effect right now because they don't know what is appropriate and what is not appropriate."
