Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, facing criticism for defending “anti-woke” teaching in Florida, this week teed up an unusual proposal to the nation’s first Black vice president: Come debate the merits of the state’s new curriculum on African-American history.
Harris’s moves to seize the political offensive are a departure from years past, when she found herself under repeated Republican attacks after at the U.S.-Mexico border. Harris was also the point person on the administration’s efforts to bolster voting rights, which failed to gain traction on Capitol Hill.
At issue are Florida’s revised curriculum standards, particularly the mandate on teaching middle-school students about the “personal benefits” of slavery. On Tuesday, Harris called it an “attempt to gaslight us in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates.” She said the invite from DeSantis — whom she never called out by name — was an effort to legitimize that debate.
In his letter challenging Harris for a debate on the curriculum, DeSantis accused the vice president of trying to “score cheap political points” and said Florida was unique in requiring “this level of learning about such an important subject.” Quisha King, a Jacksonville mother of two African American girls, said she wants an apology from the vice president for spreading what she calls “lies” about Florida’s new Black history curriculum. King said it’s Harris, not DeSantis, who is continuing to fuel the controversy, adding that she has counted at least four times in recent days that Harris has spoken about the Florida standards.
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