JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Some Florida teachers are raising concerns about the state’s new civics training.
The Florida Department of Education is holding a series of conferences around the state this summer to teach a new civics initiative championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But some teachers feel the new initiative pushes conservative ideas without also teaching opposing views.
One teacher who spoke with News4JAX said he attended a recent conference and presenters downplayed slavery and said the widely accepted idea that the Founding Fathers wanted a separation between church and state is a misconception.
DeSantis last year signed a bill that put $106 million towards supporting new civics and government standards in K-12 schools.
“It’s crucial to ensure that we teach our students how to be responsible citizens,” DeSantis said during a news conference in June 2021 at a Fort Myers middle school. “They need to have a good working knowledge of American history, American government and the principles that underline our Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
Those new standards are now being taught to thousands of teachers across the state during 10 voluntary three-day conferences where teachers also get a $700 stipend for attending and the possibility of a $3,000 bonus.
MORE: DeSantis lashes out at ‘critical race theory’ in push to overhaul Florida’s civics curriculum
But St. Johns County teacher Justin Vogel said he was shocked at the presentations he saw during a conference last week in Jacksonville.
“It’s mind-blowing what they what they tried to convince us of, in some cases, some cases were worse than others,” Vogel said.
Teachers in South Florida voiced similar concerns, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
In one of the slides presented and shared with News4JAX, the DOE said it was a “misconception” that the Founding Fathers wanted a strict separation of church and state.
“The presenters said that it was because [Thomas] Jefferson when he said ‘wall of separation between church and state,’ he didn’t mean it,” Vogel said.
Vogel, who teaches academic research, said presenters also promoted the idea of “originalism” — the theory that the Constitution should be given the original meaning it had when it became law — by repeatedly using the phrase “through the founders’ eyes.”
“It became pretty clear pretty quickly that this was a euphemism for, you know, originalism, which in itself is, you know, a conservative viewpoint, which is fine, totally fine, but nothing else was presented,” he said. “People have those opinions, but it’s being presented as the ‘correct way.’”
The opposing theory is that the Constitution should be interpreted in the modern context. The debate between the two schools of thought has come up during recent decisions by the Supreme Court.
Vogel said the presentation also downplayed slavery by noting that two-thirds of the Founding Fathers owned slaves but added, “even those that held slaves did not defend the institution.” Presenters also showed a slide that said less than 4% of slavery in the Western Hemisphere was in Colonial America, which Vogel interpreted to mean “everybody was doing it.”
“The other part of it is that the founders, quote, ‘did all they could,’ on the issue of slavery, that was what they were trying to convince us of,” he said.
The allegations of Vogel seem to contradict the stated goal of DeSantis, who said Florida needs to take the politicization out of its civics curriculum.
“Our schools are supposed to give people a foundation of knowledge, not supposed to be indoctrination centers, where you’re trying to push specific ideologies,” DeSantis said last year.
Backed by the Florida Legislature, DeSantis has introduced and passed policies that limit certain teachings about race, gender identity and some aspects of history.
Tampa Bay Times reported the workshops were developed with the help of Hillsdale College, a private conservative liberal arts college in Michigan, and the Bill of Rights Institute, which was founded by Charles Koch, an influential billionaire.
News4JAX contacted John Duebel, the state’s director of social studies and the arts for the bureau of standards and instructional support, but he referred questions to the state Department of Education, which did not immediately respond.
In a statement issued to the Tampa Bay Times, FDOE said: ”Every lesson we teach is based on history, not ideology or any form of indoctrination.”