Q&A Of The Day – Part 1 What Happens If Florida’s Teachers Defy Board Of Education Policy?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry: Even if the state board adopts the rule change banning CRT, how do we know it still won’t be taught at the local level. If the books are already in our schools and teachers want to teach it, what’s going to stop them?
Bottom Line: In the moment, of course there’s nothing which could stop it. After that moment however – there's a lot that could. Today’s note is in reference to the Florida Department of Education’s meeting tomorrow which will consider a proposed a rule change by the DeSantis administration which would ban the teaching of critical race theory in Florida’s schools. Step one is having the rule adopted. While it’s believed the state’s board of ed will go along with the proposed rule change it’s not a given. There’s been a strong lobbying effort against the adoption led by the Florida Education Association. Florida’s largest teacher’s union. That not so little factoid plays directly into your concerns. If the state’s largest teacher's union is expending resources to fight for the ability to teach CRT in Florida’s schools – clearly there’s a desire within the education establishment to teach it. In addressing your question, should the Florida Board of Education adopt the rule change and a teacher press forward with advancing CRT in the classroom anyway... The consequences can be severe.
Should a teacher choose to deliberately teach outside of what's approved by the Florida Department of Education, they may engage in what’s officially called “Education Misconduct”. According to the Florida Department of Education educator misconduct: Occurs in various forms and ranges in severity from allegations of direct harm to students (such as physical or sexual abuse) to an act detrimental to the education profession (such as falsifying documentation of continuing education courses or cheating on a professional exam). For the most part, misconduct by educators occurs either on the school campus or with members of the school community, but can also be something that happens outside of the school environment and does not involve students.
Should the Florida Board of Education prohibit the teaching of critical race theory in Florida’s schools and should teachers attempt it anyway, the state provides a path for accountability. I’ll address that in the second part of today’s Q&A.
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