PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – The roundtable on “This Week in South Florida” touched on a number of hot button issues Sunday, including the last minute announcement that the state’s top education official would be a no-show at a recent town hall to discuss African American history standards.
“We don’t know if that was his own choice or the governor’s team told him not to appear,” said attorney and political analyst Rafael Yaniz.
“What’s important is that we learn from our history so that we can never repeat it, and so that we can understand our current state,” said Miami-Dade County Independent Civilian Panel Chair Loreal Arscott. “It’s unclear to me why there’s several attempts to whitewash that history and makes folks feel uncomfortable.”
What is fact is that Manny Diaz initially agreed to be a panelist on the platform at a church in the predominately Black city of Miami Gardens.
The town hall went on as scheduled last week and the debate over new curriculum guidelines for classrooms is ongoing, including a controversial benchmark that suggests enslaved people benefitted from slavery.
“These standards did not show up from one day to the other -- they were developed, there were meetings and discussions, there were at least five meetings where the union was present -- they didn’t make any comment, they didn’t make any recommendations,” said attorney Marili Cancio.
“The average voter was unaware that it was even a thought before the legislature, so that speaks volumes to the disconnect between the representatives and the community,” added Arscott.
Book restrictions for Florida students and confusion over the banning of AP Psychology courses was also a debated topic on the TWISF roundtable.
“This impacted 30,000 kids who signed up for the Advanced Placement psychology class,” said Anne Geggis with Florida Politics.