Ron DeSantis Defends New Florida Curriculum to Teach Slavery’s ‘Benefit,’ Says ‘Scholars’ Are Behind It

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Friday that new education standards around teaching slavery in Florida schools will show that enslaved people were able to "parlay" the skills they were forced to learn.

DeSantis, who was speaking to reporters during an event in Utah, defended a new set of academic standards in his state that will require middle schools to teach that enslaved people "developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit" — a line that has ignited significant controversy among teachers' groups and parents in the state.

“They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life," DeSantis said, adding that "scholars" put together the standards, which he said were "rooted in whatever is factual."

DeSantis also tried to distance himself from the standards, saying, “I didn’t do it. I wasn’t involved in it.”

But the standards — which were approved by Florida’s Board of Education last week despite pleas from a statewide teachers' union — come in response to the state's 2022 "Stop WOKE Act," a piece of legislation championed by DeSantis himself that stated that race must be taught in "an objective manner" that does not "indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view."

The act pushed far-right lawmakers' rhetoric that teaching Black history makes White people feel ashamed, instructing that no student should be made to feel "guilt" or "responsibility" for actions previously committed by members of the same race.

According to the newly approved education guidelines in Florida, middle school teachers must now teach students about "the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation)." A benchmark clarification listed in the standards includes the note that teachers should also instruct that enslaved people developed skills, "in some instances... for their personal benefit."

Another guideline directs teachers to instruct high schoolers about “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans” when teaching about the rebuilding of Black communities during Reconstruction. The standards list the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, in which more than 30 African Americans were killed by a White mob while attempting to vote, among the examples of "acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans."

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The move is the latest in a long string of attempts by DeSantis, who formally entered the 2024 presidential race in May, to reshape education in his state — either via legislation or through his re-shaping of school boards themselves (DeSantis himself has publicly said that he funneled over $2 million of his own PAC contributions into Florida school board races in 2022).

In January, Florida's Department of Education, which is comprised of DeSantis appointees, rejected a new Advanced Placement course on African American history in January, saying in a letter that the course "lacks educational value and is contrary to Florida law."

"In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion," reads the letter, which was sent to the College Board from the Florida Department of Education Office of Articulation.

According to TIME, the course covered more than 400 years of African American history and is the College Board's first new offering since 2014.