WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Vice President Kamala Harris said extremists want to \u201creplace history with lies\u201d as she traveled to Florida on Friday to assail Republican efforts to overhaul educational standards, plunging into a battle over schooling that has rippled through classrooms around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey dare to push propaganda to our children,\u201d she said in Jacksonville. \u201cThis is the United States of America. We\u2019re not supposed to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her trip came two days after the Florida Board of Education approved a revised Black history curriculum to satisfy legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who has accused public schools of liberal indoctrination. The new standards include instruction that enslaved people benefited from skills that they learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?\u201d Harris asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She did not mention DeSantis by name, instead referring to \u201cso-called leaders.\u201d However, the speech was another example of how Harris has been the White House point person for addressing cultural issues such as race, schooling and\u00a0abortion\u00a0that DeSantis has taken on in the governor\u2019s office and on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Salt Lake City on Friday, DeSantis doubled down on earlier arguments that the new curriculum was needed to prevent liberal indoctrination and accused Harris of attempting \u201cto demagogue\u201d and politicize history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he wasn\u2019t involved in devising the Board of Education\u2019s standards but defended the components concerning how enslaved people benefited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re probably going to show is some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later, later in life. But the reality is: All of that is rooted in whatever is factual,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier, DeSantis accused the Biden administration of being \u201cobsessed\u201d with his state as it ignores other problems, like border security and crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris, the first Black person to serve as vice president, spoke from the Ritz Theater and Museum, located in a historically African American neighborhood of Jacksonville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She described \u201ctrue patriotism\u201d as \u201cfighting for a nation that will be better for each generation to come,\u201d and she said schools would better prepare students for the world if they don\u2019t gloss over historical crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLet us not be seduced into believing that somehow we will be better if we forget,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will be better if we remember. We will be stronger if we remember.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, said Harris was out to \u201clecture Floridian parents that their children belong to the government and the government has a right to indoctrinate and sexualize our children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said \u201cthe government overreach on parental rights has already been overwhelmingly rejected in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Joe Biden and Harris have pitched their reelection campaign around preserving freedoms, and they view education issues as one way to highlight Republican extremism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a video announcing his bid for a second term, Biden warned about Republicans \u201cdictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love, all while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jacksonville is a rare bright spot for Democrats in Florida, a longtime swing state that has become\u00a0increasingly safe for Republicans. Donna Deegan, a Democrat,\u00a0was elected as the city\u2019s mayor\u00a0in May, and Harris tried to boost morale among the party faithful on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe gotta remind the folks of Florida that you\u2019re not fighting out here by yourself,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe believe in you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida has shifted to the right under DeSantis\u2019 leadership. As governor, he\u2019s signed legislation on a number of education issues, such as banning drag shows at schools and imposing new requirements for transgender bathroom use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022, he signed what he called\u00a0the Stop WOKE Act, which limits how race can be taught in school and which the governor used to attack critical race theory \u2014 a subject he has\u00a0described as \u201ccrap.\u201d\u00a0The law essentially says students can\u2019t be made to feel guilty about their race because of injustices of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics said the law was DeSantis\u2019 attempt to suppress an accurate account of Black history. The law is being challenged\u00a0in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe full measure of African American history is not a hand-picked Rosa Parks here and a Martin Luther King Jr. there,\u201d said Democratic state Sen. Bobby Powell, who is Black. \u201cIt is the sweeping collection of stories spanning several centuries, the lessons of cruelty and inhumanity interwoven in the determination of a people to live and breathe free. It is as much Florida\u2019s story as the nation\u2019s story and it needs to be fully told.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year, the\u00a0DeSantis administration rejected\u00a0a College Board Advanced Placement course on African American history, which DeSantis said was \u201cindoctrination.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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