Politico: School Choice Has Allowed Parents to Choose Good Schools in Florida, and Now the Bad Government Schools Are Closing, and That's ... Bad, for Some Reason.
(I rarely post articles from Politiko, but when I find an article that has them crying I have no choice.)

But liberals really care about the children and not just the government workers, right?
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have spent years aggressively turning the state into a haven for school choice. They have been wildly successful, with tens of thousands more children enrolling in private or charter schools or homeschooling.
Now as those programs balloon, some of Florida's largest school districts are facing staggering enrollment declines -- and grappling with the possibility of campus closures -- as dollars follow the increasing number of parents opting out of traditional public schools.
The emphasis on these programs has been central to DeSantis' goals of remaking the Florida education system, and they are poised for another year of growth. DeSantis' school policies are already influencing other GOP-leaning states, many of which have pursued similar voucher programs. But Florida has served as a conservative laboratory for a suite of other policies, ranging from attacking public- and private-sector diversity programs to fighting the Biden administration on immigration.
"We need some big changes throughout the country," DeSantis said Thursday evening at the Florida Homeschool Convention in Kissimmee. "Florida has shown a blueprint, and we really can be an engine for that as other states work to adopt a lot of the policies that we've done."

Education officials in some of the state's largest counties are looking to scale back costs by repurposing or outright closing campuses -- including in Broward, Duval and Miami-Dade counties. Even as some communities rally to try to save their local public schools, traditional public schools are left with empty seats and budget crunches.
Since 2019-20, when the pandemic upended education, some 53,000 students have left traditional public schools in these counties, a sizable total that is forcing school leaders to consider closing campuses that have been entrenched in local communities for years.
In Broward County, Florida's second-largest school district, officials have floated plans to close up to 42 campuses over the next few years, moves that would have a ripple effect across Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.
The district has lost more than 20,000 students over the last five years, a decline that comes as charter schools in particular experienced sizable growth in the area. Enrollment in charters, which are public schools operating under performance contracts freeing them of many state regulations, increased by nearly 27,000 students since 2010, according to Broward school officials.
Broward County Public Schools claims to have more than 49,000 classroom seats sitting empty this year, a number that "closely matches" the 49,833 students attending charter schools in the area, officials noted in an enrollment overview.

More whining and crying at:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/26/desantis-florida-school-closures-00159926

DeSantis signs bill barring ideologically charged teacher training requirements.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Thursday prohibiting ideology-based requirements for teacher certifications in the state.
The bill, HB 1291, prevents teacher certification programs from “distorting historical events” or embracing politically ideological positions on race, sex and gender.
Specifically, the programs will not be allowed to claim that things like systemic racism, sexism, oppression or privilege are inherent in systems of power.
DeSantis explained during a press conference that even if the state bans critical race theory or other ideological curriculum, teachers are still learning to teach students these concepts during their educator preparation training.
“This bill prohibits the indoctrination in teacher preparation,” DeSantis said. “There’s not gonna be DEI, there’s not gonna be any of the bogus history, it’s just gonna be standard teacher preparation without having an ideological agenda.”
“Parents want to send their kids to school knowing they get an education,” he continued. “I don’t think they’re interested in an indoctrination.”
“To say you’re going to take one viewpoint, one perceptive, and try to impose that as the standard for curriculum, that doesn’t work in Florida and we don’t do it,” he added.
Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, one of the main sponsors of the bill, thanked the governor for signing the legislation and advocating for teachers.
He reflected on when he called the left wing indoctrination “woke garbage” on the House floor, while debating Democrats during the bill’s consideration.
“You can imagine a lot of the Democrats, they didn’t like it too much. They were calling a point of order, they said I broke decorum, asking the speaker to admonish me,” Jacques said. “So I took a deep breath and I came bake with a more polite term, and I called it woke rubbish.”
“The fact of the matter is this, regardless of how you slice it, whether it’s CRT or DEI, all of that stuff is simply trash,” he said. “And with the signature today of HB 1291, governor, we will once and for all take out the trash here in the state of Florida.”
An elementary school teacher in Duval County expressed her thanks to the governor for his work in strengthening educator preparation programs.
She talked about her own experience teaching in a private school that allows for her to educate. students on accurate history.
“It saddens me however that not every educator in this country gets the opportunity to witness this great, healthy cultivation of knowledge,” she said.
She warned how teachers who grew up without a strong set of morals and values can end up blindly leading future generations.
“What this bill is so wonderfully providing is an opportunity for educators to not be blind anymore,” she continued. “The goal is to make more educators feel confident about what history is without hidden agendas.”
In addition to Jacques, the legislation was sponsored by Rep. John Snyder, R-Stuart, and Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill.
It’s set to go into effect on July 1.

https://flvoicenews.com/desantis-signs-bill-barring-ideologically-charged-teacher-training-requirements/

Florida Board of Education passes rules for bathrooms at Florida colleges and private schools.

NAPLES, Fla. (FLV) – The Florida Board of Education passed rules that require restrooms and changing facilities at private schools and Florida College System institutions be designated for exclusive use by biological males or females.
If not designated for exclusive use by biological males or females, the institution would provide a single-occupant, unisex restroom/changing facility.
This rule change would apply to student housing facilities owned or operated by the institution or by the institution’s direct support organization.
In July, the board previously voted to approve similar rules for K-12 public schools.
The new rule will implement HB 1521, which passed during the 2023 legislative session. The law prohibits people from willfully entering a restroom or changing area of the opposite sex, except in certain specified circumstances.
Under the new rule, postsecondary institutions would need to follow reporting compliance requirements. Institutions will certify to the department that they have met the requirements for facilities and disciplinary actions for students and employees who violate the new provisions.
Institutions are required to submit a Safety in Private Spaces Act Compliance Certification form to verify their facilities to meet these new requirements by April 1, 2024.
The certification submitted by the institution will encompass all facilities on all campuses, centers, and special purpose centers.
If a new facility is established after July 1, the president must submit the form within one year.
The rule also establishes disciplinary actions that Florida College System Institutions must implement for instructional and administrative personnel who violate the new provisions.
Florida College System institutions must establish a disciplinary policy for administrative personnel and instructional personnel who violate the law that complies with the following parameters:
1. Institutions must investigate each complaint regarding violations of the law and must have an established procedure for such investigations.
2. Disciplinary actions may utilize a progressive discipline process that includes verbal warnings, written reprimands, suspension without pay, and termination.
3. The disciplinary action taken should be based on the specific circumstances of the offense, however, a second documented offense must result in a termination.
4. Institutions must document violations of the law, and retain such documentation according to the institution’s records retention policies.
The college system institutions have to update their student codes of conduct and their employee disciplinary procedures for anyone who would violate the section of law. They also must update their employee employment manuals to include the procedures.
Some members of the public spoke in opposition of the rules during public comment.
“The proposed rule is an attack on the basic dignity of transgender students, faculty and staff and I oppose this rule,” one member of the public said.
Board member Grazie Christie said bathroom spaces are “very intimate, and private, and there is historically and cross culturally accurate reason why males and females use different spaces and those intimate moments not just for girls and women, but also for boys and men.”
Christie said this is “not something that as a culture, we should ditch because of very new ideologies that are challenging the science of male and female – which doesn’t change – because biology doesn’t change.”
Another rule passed Wednesday would create similar facility requirements in K-12 private schools.
Private schools must comply with all applicable requirements of the law pertaining to the use of restrooms and changing facilities by males or females, based on biological sex at birth.
Schools must also update the student code of conduct according to the law.
The rule states instructional personnel and administrative personnel who violate any provision of the law commit a violation of the Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession.

https://flvoicenews.com/board-of-education-passes-rules-for-bathrooms-at-florida-colleges-and-private-schools/

Gender Studies Faces a Bleak Future on College Campuses; Leftists Worried.

Proponents of the controversial “gender studies” discipline are now on high alert as Republicans move to do away with it on college campuses, arguing that it is less a legitimate academic field and more an instrument of left-wing politics.
Florida, which has recently been a battlefront of many culture-war issues, is once more causing stir with the news that the newly appointed conservative trustee board at the New College of Florida in Sarasota voted last week to scrap the university’s 28-year gender-studies program.
Trustee Matthew Spalding, a professor at the right-leaning Hillsdale College and now a trustee for New College of Florida, asserted in a statement to The Daily Signal that gender studies does not offer anything substantial that is not covered by other fields.
“Not only does gender studies fall well outside this focus, but its ideologically driven and tendentious character render it more a movement of cultural politics than an academic discipline,” Spalding said. “Any substantial topic taken up in gender studies may be found thoroughly treated in the ordinary academic disciplines such as history, psychology, or biology.”
He concluded, “Removal of gender studies as an area of concentration at New College is fully in accord with its strategic mission to be the state of Florida’s liberal arts honors college.”
Gender studies was born out of women’s studies, and places a focus on LGBT ideology. This emphasis has earned it the scrutiny of conservatives. Now that there is a nationwide momentum to push back against transgender indoctrination in K-12 classrooms, those in the higher education community anticipate a similar, far-reaching push against gender studies on college campuses.
Lisa Moore, professor of women’s and gender studies and the director of the LGBTQ Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin, told The Hill, “Those of us who are working in red states are on pretty high alert.”
If the Rainbow Flag brigade doesn’t want to be the recipient of public censure, maybe they should stop trying to force their views on minors in the classrooms and via drag shows, and simply keep their sexual proclivities to themselves.
(And stay the hell out of FLORIDA.)

 

https://thenewamerican.com/us/education/gender-studies-faces-a-bleak-future-on-college-campuses-leftists-worried/

Climate Alarmists/Leftists Seethe as PragerU Videos Will Be Allowed in Florida Classrooms.

PragerU, a conservative organization that produces educational videos that often question left-wing orthodoxy, is now an approved vendor for Florida public schools. The Florida Board of Education approved the use of PragerU videos as a source of information, saying that the company’s videos aligned with the state’s revised civics and government standards.
And, boy, is the left-wing climate cult upset about the prospect of schoolchildren hearing facts and opinions that don’t conform with their “climate change is an existential threat to life as we know it” narrative.
“By teaching future generations blatant lies and propaganda and … climate denialism that is in direct contradiction to scientific fact,” said Raymer Maguire of the Cleo Institute, a climate-hysteria think tank based in Miami, “we are setting up our future generations to not have the tools and the education they need to tackle what is arguably the greatest crisis that they’re going to face in their lifetime.”
According to Maguire, PragerU videos are denying a reality that is blatantly obvious to him and his peers.
“What they’re doing is completely denying the nearly universally accepted scientific fact that humans burning carbon is resulting in us having the climate impact that we feel today,” Maguire added.
Or, perhaps, what’s happening is that schoolkids in Florida might get an opinion different from the left-wing dogma on not just climate, but several other issues as well.

 

But Maguire and the Cleo Institute aren’t about to allow such free speech to occur without attempting to intervene.
“We are mobilizing our members and organizers across the state to speak with their local school board members,” Maguire said. “Because the activists, the voters, the people on the ground, can help to help grow the momentum to reject this on a county-wide level across the state.”
Some counties have already announced they would not use PragerU videos.
”I believe this should not be utilized, so I asked the chief academic officer if it would be used in Pinellas County schools, and I was informed that the district has no plans of adding these resources to [the] curriculum,” said Caprice Edmond, a Pinellas County school-board member.
Some educators are upset that the Florida Board of Education has, essentially, given educators the green light to use PragerU videos without the consent of the school district.
“And throughout the state of Florida, teacher contracts largely protect them to have the autonomy to build this in their lessons should they choose to,” said Jessica Wright, a former teacher who is now the vice president of the nonprofit Florida Freedom to Read Project. “And so a district may be able to say, ‘we don’t recommend this, it’s not in our curriculum maps, we do not promote it being used,’ but the teacher could still have the autonomy to use it, and virtually have no negative repercussions for it, because it’s been endorsed and promoted by the state.”
So, it’s wrong for a teacher to go off-script in their lessons once in a while? Isn’t that the type of thing that teachers unions have been fighting for for decades?
Marissa Streit, PragerU CEO, confirms Wright’s fear that the Florida Board of Education’s approval will allow teachers to use the organization’s videos without fear of being fired.
“We have seen that our schools have been hijacked by the left. They have been politicized, they have been used by union bosses, they have been doing everything under the sun not for our children,” Streit said.
“And so we have launched PragerU Kids and we started providing great ‘edutainment,’ educational entertainment for children across America. But we didn’t just stop there. Now we’re actually making turnkey curriculum. Content for your schools. And the state of Florida just announced that we are now becoming an official vendor. This means that if you are a teacher in Florida, you cannot be fired for using PragerU content,” she added.
It’s important to note that the Florida Board of Education does not require the use of the PragerU videos — it only allows them to be shown as part of a balanced curriculum. But that’s not something the political Left and climate alarmists can allow. Allowing students to see alternatives to the spurious narratives they’re teaching as facts might make some students question those narratives.

https://thenewamerican.com/us/education/climate-alarmists-leftists-seethe-as-prageru-videos-will-be-allowed-in-florida-classrooms/

 Leftists Don’t Want Florida Kids To Learn About These Former Slaves’ Self-Made Success Stories.

Rushing to attack DeSantis, many have attacked history itself, pushing views that degrade the contributions of blacks in early America.
The debate on teaching black history, and the role slavery played in it, is front and center in the state of Florida. While many on the left (and now the right) lambast Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Department of Education for their new history curriculum standards, which teach that some former slaves leveraged skills gained during slavery for their own prosperity as free men, it is clear that real history is under threat of being lost.
American slavery was brutal, oppressive, and dehumanizing. It is a stain on our country’s history that continues to plague us today. Slavery is a grave wrong against humanity. However, we seem to lack consensus on how to teach this sensitive subject.
Despite how insensitive some may believe it to be, some slaves did learn skilled trades, and they did use these skills to secure their freedom. Some of these former slaves even went on to use these skills to buy freedom for their families and build successful businesses. This is not an opinion but a fact.
For example, let us consider the stories of Free Frank McWorter, Henry Boyd, and Benjamin Thornton Montgomery.

 

“Free” Frank McWorter was born a slave in South Carolina in 1777. McWorter worked odd jobs and side hustles in his spare time to save up money to buy his freedom. Once free, he leaned on the business skills he honed in negotiating with his former slaver on the frontier to make money. McWorter invested in real estate and commercial farming. As a free man, he amassed a small fortune, bought the freedom of his family members, and became the first black American to charter a new city inhabited by both black and white buyers.
Similarly, Henry Boyd was born a slave in Kentucky in 1802. Boyd learned carpentry as a slave and used the skill to earn money to buy his freedom. Once free, he became a successful businessman and saved enough money to buy the freedom of his enslaved siblings. Boyd eventually started a furniture business, and his revolutionary steam-powered factory produced thousands of bed frames. Unfortunately, his success made him the frequent target of racist arsonists that seriously crippled his business over time.
Born in Virginia in 1819, Benjamin Thornton Montgomery was trained to operate machinery, which he would later go on to design. He also acquired knowledge of land surveying and construction building as a slave. In 1842, Montgomery opened a retail store on the Hurricane Plantation that was so successful, he eventually bought the plantation holdings in October 1866. In the Reconstruction era, Montgomery was appointed justice of the peace, becoming one of the first black men and former slaves to hold public office in Mississippi.
Admittedly, this is by no means an exhaustive list of those who garnered skills as slaves and leveraged them for personal and familial benefit later in life. Historical records include numerous such accounts of black people accomplishing amazing things despite racism. Undoubtedly, some stories were never properly documented and may be lost to time.
Yet these three stories highlight a more urgent concern, in a rush to attack Florida and DeSantis, many have unwittingly attacked history itself.
Partisan individuals and groups seeking to score political points are openly advocating for erasing history. Those blindly attacking Florida’s standards are purposely pushing the distorted idea that the state is planning to teach children that slavery was beneficial. This isn’t true, and such an endeavor would arguably be a violation of Florida state law.
These blind attacks are also exceptionally disrespectful, implying the black scholars who devised the education standards desired for students to believe slavery was somehow beneficial to those enslaved.
However, let’s consider the ramifications of refusing to teach the entire story of slavery. This refusal would feed into a nasty, flawed, and disgusting view of black American history that ultimately degrades the contributions of blacks in early American society. It’s hard to see how black Americans would be better served by such an erroneous approach.
African American history is the story of a resilient people that persevered through even the most unimaginable and challenging circumstances — and that is exactly how it should be taught.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/08/02/leftists-dont-want-florida-kids-to-learn-about-these-former-slaves-self-made-success-stories/

 Well ... don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

 

Academic Who Co-Created Florida’s African American History Curriculum
Slams Kamala Harris’ ‘Lies.’

One of the academics behind Florida’s African American history curriculum slammed Vice President Kamala Harris‘ “lies” about the information in the material, calling her remarks “categorically false.”
Last week, Harris traveled to Jacksonville, Florida, where she ignited a false narrative surrounding the new curriculum, claiming that “in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery.”
Harris found one sentence from the 216-page curriculum, which stated that freed slaves used skills they had learned and developed during slavery to help themselves later in their lives: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
By comparison, the College Board includes a similar item in its course framework for AP African American Studies for 2023-2024, which the curriculum identifies as “essential knowledge.” 
“In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South. Once free, African Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others,” the curriculum reads. The College Board’s AP college prep classes are available in thousands of schools across the U.S.

https://twitter.com/JeremyRedfernFL/status/1683647510013779971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1683647510013779971%7Ctwgr%5E4554d1e1098660f66cbe1e12074817a3ba603b3f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheboresite.com%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcoremodule%3Dsystemcontroller%3Dembedurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJeremyRedfernFL%2Fstatus%2F1683647510013779971
 
https://resistthemainstream.com/academic-who-co-created-floridas-african-american-history-curriculum-slams-kamala-harris-lies/

 AP African American Studies contains same slavery teachings as new Florida standards.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (FLV) – In lieu of criticism against provisions in Florida African American history standards surrounding skills and talents that enslaved people developed, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration pointed out a similarity in the College Board’s African American Studies course.
Vice President Kamala Harris was among those most outspoken against new Florida standards that would teach “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
The term “benefit” being used in conjunction with slavery prompted the outrage.
“They [Florida leaders] want to replace history with lies,” Harris said. “Middle school students in Florida, to be told that enslaved people benefited from slavery. High schoolers may be taught that victims of violence of massacres were also perpetrators.”
Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, pointed out that AP African American Studies, a course Harris called Florida leaders “extremist” for pushing back on and initially rejecting, teaches that enslaved Americans obtained some “benefit” in the face of inhumane captivity:

“In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South. Once free, American Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others.”
AP African American Studies Official Course Framework, Project, and Exam Overview – Effective 2023-2024 (page 72).

Those teachings from the College Board match Florida’s new guidelines that will teach how “slaves developed skills” that could later be applied “for their personal benefit.”
Dr. William Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice, who created the new Florida standards, said the “intent” of this particular benchmark is to “show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted.”
The two are members of Florida’s African American History Standards workgroup.
“Remember when Florida wouldn’t allow that AP African American Studies course because it focused too much on CRT and not enough on history, and the @WhiteHouse lost its mind?” Redfern said. “Well, here is one of the standards considered ‘essential knowledge.'”
“Waiting for @PressSec to denounce the @CollegeBoard from the @WhiteHouse press podium,” he added. “She must call an emergency presser to denounce this extremism.”
Controversy over the standards continued Wednesday evening after Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr. told superintendents the state is moving forward with approving the standards in the face of wide criticism.
Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds prompted responses from DeSantis officials after he agreed with criticisms on the particular slavery section using the term “benefit.”
Donalds said that while the new standards approved by Florida are “good, robust, & accurate,” sections that “feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted.”
Responding to Donalds, Diaz slammed the congressman as “supposedly conservative” and part of the federal government trying to “dictate Florida’s education standards.”
“This new curriculum is based on truth,” he said. “We will not back down from teaching our nation’s true history at the behest of a woke @WhiteHouse, nor at the behest of a supposedly conservative congressman.”
Redfern also called Donalds a “supposed conservative.”
“Supposed conservatives in the federal government are pushing the same false narrative that originated from the @WhiteHouse,” Redfern said. “Florida isn’t going to hide the truth for political convenience.”
“Maybe the congressman shouldn’t swing for the liberal media fences like @VP [Kamala Harris],” DeSantis’ press secretary continued.
In response, Donalds noted he “expressed support for the vast majority of the new African American history standards” but only opposed “one sentence that seemed to dignify the skills gained by slaves as a result of their enslavement.”
“Anyone who can’t accurately interpret what I said is disingenuous and is desperately attempting to score political points,” Donalds continued. “Just another reason why l’m proud to have endorsed President Donald J. Trump!”
Donalds endorsed former President Donald Trump for president in April. He’s also recently said he’d accept a vice president position from Trump if offered one.
The congressman previously received a 100% “Liberty Score” from Conservative Review and a 96% conservative score from Heritage Action.
DeSantis pushed back after Harris visited Florida last week, saying she tried “to push a fake narrative about what Florida did.”
“She wasn’t going down to the border to actually do the job there to secure it. She wasn’t working on all the cities that are decaying because of Soros-backed prosecutors,” the governor said.
Democrats claimed that part of the standard is “perpetuating historical inaccuracies and contributing to a lackluster version of American history.”
Rep. Jervonte Edmonds, D-West Palm Beach, said the curriculum’s attempt to frame the labor skills developed by slaves as potentially “applied for their personal benefit” is “particularly concerning.”

https://flvoicenews.com/ap-african-american-history-contains-same-slavery-teachings-as-new-florida-standards/

 Florida Black history academic shreds Harris' 'categorically false' claims in unaired ABC News interview.

Dr. William B. Allen chided critics who are too quick to malign the curriculum, saying, 'It’s only those who don’t take the time to read it who will misstate it.’
(Those with very minuscule I.Q.’s will also have a hard time understanding it also.)
An academic who helped craft Florida’s African American history curriculum called out Vice President Kamala Harris for mischaracterizing the course material in interview footage ABC News left on the cutting room floor.
The Florida Board of Education recently approved a new curriculum for African American history, with a section on how "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit" drawing heavy criticism.
Harris condemned this line in a recent speech, declaring that "they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it."
The former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup member, Dr. William Allen, told ABC News Harris completely mischaracterized the curriculum with a "categorically false" assessment.

https://twitter.com/JeremyRedfernFL/status/168319719443257344

 

However, the network didn't air those comments on Saturday's "ABC World News Tonight." Only a small segment from Allen's interview aired, when he defended the controversial line, "It is the case that Africans proved resourceful, resilient and adaptive, and were able to develop skills and aptitudes which served to their benefit both while enslaved and after enslavement."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary Jeremy Redfern shared several more minutes from Allen's interview with ABC News in a series of tweets, highlighting Allen's response to Harris.
"Yesterday, @abcnews aired a very small section of their interview with a member of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup, Dr. William B. Allen. Here’s more of the interview, where Dr. Allen debunks @VP’s narrative and calls her criticism 'categorically false,'" he said.
"The only criticism I’ve encountered so far is a single one that was articulated by the vice president and which was an error," Allen told ABC News according to the audio Redfern released. "As I stated in my response to the vice president, it was categorically false."
He then went on to claim the course is not portraying slavery as beneficial in itself, but rather how African Americans managed to prove themselves adaptable and resilient in a time of crisis.
"It was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans," he noted. "What was said, and anyone who reads this will see this with clarity, it is the case that Africans proved resourceful, resilient and adaptive and were able to develop skills and aptitudes which served to their benefit, both while enslaved and after enslavement."
When the interviewer asked if the wording should be amended amid all the controversy and confusion, Allen cited his own ancestry and firmly said it should not be changed.
"I do not. No. I think it would be effectively to erase people’s history. Let me illustrate that for you, if I may," Allen said. "My great-grandfather is someone who came from the islands and who was enslaved here and whose own resourcefulness, resilience, and adaptiveness was certainly instrumental in producing for his family, his descendants, the ability to prosper here in this country."
He then emphasized his point by calling back the wording of the curriculum, "Hence, from his resourcefulness, we derive benefits. I think anyone who would try to change that language would be denying that great-grandfather Cidipus made any contribution. I certainly could not endorse doing that."
He later restated his assertion that the course material focuses on resilience and adaptability in the face of oppression, rather than submission to it.
"We’re talking about the experience of oppression and how people respond to the experience of oppression, and we want people to recognize that there’s an opposite to Stockholm Syndrome. People don’t necessarily simply embrace their oppressors when they’re oppressed. They also react adaptively and they find ways to make pathways for themselves even in the presence of oppression," he said. "That’s what calls upon their resourcefulness, their resilience and their adaptability."
As the interview came to a close, he took another swipe at Harris for making such claims while purportedly not having read the actual course materials.
"I just want to foster and encourage everyone to take the time to read, or as I said in my response to the vice president, I think every intellect can understand the language written there if people only take the time to read it," he said. "It’s only those who don’t take the time to read it who will misstate it."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/florida-black-history-academic-shreds-harris-categorically-false-claims-unaired-abc-news-interview