"Schooled" On The Law IN Public Education

Gov. DeSantis continues to defend Florida’s social studies curriculum guidelines that suggest slavery had postive effects by allowing those in bondage to develop new skills. On August 7, Mother Jones reported that during Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appearance on NBC News’ Meet The Press program defended his state’s new provision in the state’s education guidelines that implied freed African-Americans benefited from chattel slavery, claiming it would teach students that enslaved people “eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.” “That means they developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery,” DeSantis added. “It was them showing resourcefulness and then using those skills once slavery ended.”

DeSantis is bound and determined to ride agenda that is as far right of Trump as possible. Praising any aspect of slavery is an denial of the principles enshirned in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. This provision harms not only African American students, but all students because it is a fundamental denial of the historical truth preventing students from becoming fully informed citizens.