California’s Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, is calling upon textbook publishers to disclose whether they have amended educational content to align with new education laws passed by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ administration.

These laws have had a significant impact on teaching guidelines within Florida’s K-12 classrooms, specifically regarding subjects such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), gender identity, and sexual orientation.

Over the past year, DeSantis’ administration has introduced laws curtailing the teaching of these subjects in Florida classrooms.

On top of his request to textbook publishers, Newsom’s office also submitted a public records request to DeSantis’ office and the Florida Department of Education (DOE).

This request aimed to uncover any communication between the Florida governor’s office and the textbook publishers regarding alterations made to comply with the new Florida education laws.

Newsom’s letter stated, “California will not be complicit in Florida’s attempt to whitewash history through laws and backroom deals; parents have a right to know what’s happening in the dark to undermine our children’s education — and California deserves to know whether any of these companies designing textbooks for our state’s classrooms are the same ones kowtowing to Florida’s extremist agenda.”

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Florida DOE has dismissed almost one-third of proposed social studies textbooks for the 2023-2024 academic year.

The rejection stemmed from the material containing CRT elements or promoting social emotional learning – an approach that has been denounced as a precursor to CRT.

Among the books declined by the Florida DOE was “The African-American Experience,” a book that details police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Furthermore, in January, an AP African American Studies course was rejected by the state DOE, as it included elements of CRT and a lesson on queer theory.

The DeSantis administration continues to exert control over classroom content.

In April 2022, DeSantis signed HB 7 into law, which bans educators from teaching subjects like CRT that may incite feelings of guilt or shame in students based on their race.

A month later, DeSantis endorsed legislation restricting teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation in PreK-8 classrooms.

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