TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — The Florida Education Association (FEA) – a statewide teachers union – is calling Florida’s new social studies standards “a disservice to students” and “a big step backward” for a state that has required schools to teach African American history since 1994.
But the FEA was present at the first meeting in February and told state workgroup members, including Dr. William B. Allen, that the union was “in awe of [the] depth and breadth of knowledge” and thanked the workgroup for their hard work in crafting the new guidelines.
"The teachers union was invited to attend to listen and to contribute," said Dr. Allen. "They remained silent through the entire process, contributed zero until it was all done, and then surfaced like snakes in the grass to take pot shots."
FEA union members participated for months in the process and attended multiple meetings which were open to the public. But just before the State Board of Education voted to adopt the new standards, the FEA created a false narrative and expressed shock at the contents of the new standards for social studies in the state of Florida.
“How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don’t have a full, honest picture of where we’ve come from?” Andrew Spar, the FEA’s president, said in a statement.
Spar went further to blame Governor DeSantis for pushing a “political agenda guaranteed to set good people against one another.”
But Florida’s Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. says the narrative is false and that the union representatives are piling on with their Leftist tribe members.
“Not only were they there, they praised the curriculum,” Diaz told Guy Benson in an interview.
“They were at multiple meetings and this is only until they decided to pile on with other Leftists that they decided to take this message in that direction – that’s not what they were saying when they were attending these meetings,” Diaz added.
The Florida Education Association did not immediately respond to The Florida Standard’s request for comment.
