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Kamala Harris Rebuffs Ron DeSantis' Invitation to Discuss Florida's Education Standards

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  August 01, 2023 10:00 PM

Well, it looks like Vice President Kamala Harris will continue to mislead the American people about Florida's educational standards, specifically when it comes to African-American History. As we covered earlier on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on Monday sent the vice president a letter inviting her to come speak with him and Dr. William Allen, one of the people who helped put the curriculum together. Allen is black and descended from slaves. Less than 24 hours later, though, Harris declined the governor's invitation.

Harris was once again in Florida on Tuesday, this time speaking at the African Methodist Episcopal Women’s Missionary Convention in Orlando. In repeating her hysterical claim that "we even see extremists ban books and attempt to erase and even rewrite the ugly parts of our history," she once more called out how Florida supposedly teaches slavery. 

"Right here in Florida," she said, "right here in Florida, they plan to teach students that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates. And now they attempt to legitimize these unnecessary debates with a proposal that most recently came in of a politically motivated roundtable."

It was then that she turned down DeSantis' offer. "Well, I’m here in Florida," Harris said to applause. And I will tell you, there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery." 

The vice president also turned to another line she's used ad nauseam in her remarks lately. "And as I said last week when I was again here in Florida: We will not stop calling out and fighting back against extremist so-called leaders who try to prevent our children from learning our true and full history," she declared about "extremist so-called leaders."

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Even while Harris continues to mislead about the standards, she offered a hopeful message to the crowd. "And so, in this moment, let us remember: It is in the darkness that the candle shines most brightly," she said as she moved on in her remarks. "So, let us not be distracted.  Let us not be deterred.  And let us have faith in who we are as a nation.  Let us agree that the true measure of strength is not based on who you beat down but who you lift up," she said, even as she and others who repeat her claims about the standards are the ones who are "distracted" by their own narratives.

Apparently speaking with one of the people instrumental for the curriculum, who again is black and descended from slaves, so as to clear up misconceptions, is "gaslight[ing]." Harris could learn a thing or two about the standards, but she'd rather continue with a narrative to suit her political whims. 

It isn't merely DeSantis looking to set the record straight on the standards. The two tweets shared to her official account were met with thousands of replies and quoted retweets calling her out. 

It's also worth reminding, as Bonchie at our sister site of RedState did when covering Harris' response, that these standards are the same as those included in the AP course on African-American History. 

We've discussed the issue at length at Townhall, especially when it comes to analysis from Guy. 

As Bonchie also aptly pointed out in the most recent coverage, the hysteria is there because DeSantis is involved:

All the while, those who actually wrote the curriculum, such as Dr. William B. Allen, repeatedly pointed out that the standards don’t include any mention of slavery being beneficial. Rather, the mention of skills (and any benefits derived from them) was meant to convey that former slaves used things like being able to read and write to help their families, or in the case of someone like Frederick Douglass, help the nation. To bolster that contention, an almost identical passage in the original AP curriculum, which was rejected to the shrieks of the White House, was unearthed.

Any intellectually honest person knew from the beginning the entire controversy was manufactured because it’s never been taboo in the past to share stories of former slaves benefiting themselves and others by becoming inventors, entrepreneurs, and famous writers. In fact, it would be wrong to bury those stories, but when DeSantis is involved, all that matters is sheer hysteria in pursuit of political gain.

Slavery is not the only issue Harris has gotten wrong about Florida's educational standards under DeSantis. The vice president, like President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, as well as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre have decried supposed "book bans." DeSantis exposed the hoax back in March, during which news broadcasts had to cut their feed and Twitter had warning messages about "potentially sensitive content" as he showcased the books available in school libraries. 

As Guy has pointed out, Florida law is a response to demands from parents who actually want to know what materials are available to their children. School districts must report to the state any books that parents have challenged as inappropriate, The Washington Times highlighted earlier this year about the law.

The books in question are graphic and sexually explicit in nature, and their content cannot be included here. Yet the Biden administration thinks that school-aged children should have them readily available. 

As David Harasanyi raised in a column posted to Townhall in June, perhaps Biden and those in his administration should read these books themselves to kids.