State postpones teacher training on African American history, upsetting some who feel ‘chilling effect’

Florida postponed an African American history institute for public school teachers a week before its start next week, a move that upset long-standing members of the state’s African American history task force who fear it will add to the “angst” already felt about teaching the subject.

The decision to postpone the annual summer institute — a virtual teacher-training event more than 300 people registered to attend — came at a task force meeting Wednesday.

Six new task force members attending their first meeting voted for canceling the event next week and rescheduling it for later in the summer. The four long-standing members voted to hold the session June 14-15, as planned but were outnumbered. All 10 members are Black.

The new members, appointed by Education Commissioner Manny Garcia on May 11, said they wanted the institute delayed until after the State Board of Education’s planned vote in July on new African American history standards.

The others said that was not necessary and that the department could provide information about the new standards at a later date. They argued that postponing the event on short notice would send a bad message to teachers.

They also questioned how and why six new members all came to their first meeting with the same view that the 2023 summer institute needed to be postponed. The board is subject to the state’s Sunshine Law, which prohibits members from discussing issues among themselves in private.

‘Angst’ about teaching subject

Teachers already feel “angst about teaching African and African-American history,” said Brenda Walker, an education professor at the University of South Florida who has been on the task force for years. “They’re talking about what’s happening in our state.”

Walker said the institute’s two-day program included “wonderful content” that would be helpful to teachers. “Canceling at this late date, I think would be detrimental,” she said.

Samuel Wright, a retired USF administrator, was more blunt. “I’m a little livid,” he said, noting he and others who planned to speak or attend the institute next week would not necessarily be available later in the summer and saying it was wrong to cancel a week before the event.

Later in the meeting, when it was clear the event would be postponed, Wright said: “I think this has been one of the most asinine discussions I’ve had in a long time as a professional.”

The new members said they did not talk about the issue ahead of time. But all thought the new standards should be part of the teacher training event. State Rep. Berny Jacques, a Republican from Pinellas County and newly appointed member, said he had conversations with education department staff and thought it would “be prudent” to delay.

The new standards aim to “strengthen” and “reinforce the teaching of the African American history” in Florida’s public schools, said John Duebel, the education department’s director of social studies, who ran the task force meeting.

Florida law for years required the teaching of African American history, but the new law (HB 551) passed this spring requires school districts to document their instruction plans to help make sure those lessons are being taught.

The agenda for next week’s event included sessions on the state standards and talks by education department staff. There were also sessions on “best practices” for teaching African American history, Black inventors, “the journey to Juneteenth: Contextualizing Emancipation for Students,” Black history sites in Florida and “What’s Right? What’s Wrong? What Can We Do? Voices from the Classroom.”

“We’re going to have to have some tough conversations and what’s going on and how it has chilled the teaching of African American and African history, and I’m really looking forward to those conversations and the institute,” Walker said as the meeting opened.

Previous controversies

The teaching of African American history has been a controversial topic in Florida in recent years.

Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year rejected the Advanced Placement African American studies course under development by the College Board and last year championed a law that bans critical race theory and limits some race-related lessons. Both were criticized as attempts to whitewash history.

The new law prompted the Osceola County school district to cancel a teacher workshop on the civil rights movement and the Duval County school district to temporarily keep from library shelves books on baseball stars Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron for fear they might violate the new rules.

In May the NAACP in May issued a travel advisory for Florida, criticizing the governor’s “aggressive attempts to erase Black history.”

State leaders say Florida supports the teaching of African American history, including tough subjects such as slavery, and objected only to “woke” topics in the AP course, such as “Black queer studies,” that they said pushed a left-leaning agenda.

“Part of the work of this task force is certainly going to be correcting some misinformation that is out there,” Duebel said.

Frances Presley Rice, a new member, agreed the institute should be postponed until the new standards were approved and all task force members could provide input.

Rice, co-founder of an African American history association and chair of the National Black Republican Association, wanted to make sure “truthful African American history” was taught and that “we can be a credible task force,” she said.

“I think it’s very important when we have the summer institute that the new standards be in place,” Rice said. “That will help address a lot of the misinformation that is out there that’s being pushed, unfortunately by the media, that the governor and the depart of education are somehow stifling the teaching of African American history and the teachers are being suppressed and that they cannot teach the truth about African American history.”

Glen Gilzean, who had been president of the Central Florida Urban League, was the first new member to suggest postponing the institute. He wrote an opinion piece for the Orlando Sentinel in February, defending DeSantis’ rejection of the AP course and praising the governor’s commitment to Black Floridians.

Gilzean on May 10 was named administrator of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the DeSantis-appointed board that replaced Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District amid the governor’s feud with Disney. Gilzean will make $400,000 a year.

‘We’ve always been credible’

Tracy Oliver, an assistant principal at a Duval County school who has been on the task force since 2015, said she was troubled by the push to postpone and offended by comments that suggested the task force’s work was unreliable.

The task force always followed state law and “worked diligently” to follow its mission of helping schools teach African American history.

“We’ve always been credible,” Oliver said.

“It’s bringing me pause that we’re getting new members, and now we’re being faced with postponing our institute,” she added. “We’ve been at this for a year, so absolutely we are very, very concerned, frankly offended, we’re getting newcomers and then they’re questioning the credibility of the institute.”

Rep. Kimberly Davis, D-Jacksonville, another new member, denied there was an orchestrated effort to postpone the event. “I haven’t talked to anybody. I haven’t gotten any instruction from anybody. There’s no conspiracy,” she said.

Donna Austin, another established task force member, urged the group not to postpone. “People are looking forward to this,” she said. “Let’s not validate the fear of the people by coming in and stopping the summer institute.”

New members wanted to postpone an event “that many of them have said they don’t know anything about it,” she said later in the meeting.

“I can’t even wrap my head around what you’re pausing,” said Austin, a former school guidance counselor who now runs an education consulting firm. “How did you guys come up with your decision to put it on pause? I don’t think you guys are supposed to meet as a group and decide about pausing this.”

The new members also include Torey Alston, a Broward County School Board member appointed by DeSantis last year to that position, and John Davis, secretary of the Florida Lottery, who was appointed to that position in 2020 by DeSantis.