DeSantis, Harris swap claims over slavery history lessons
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, facing heavy 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.
Less than 24 hours later, Kamala Harris was in an African Methodist Episcopal church in Orlando, firing back.
"I'm here in Florida," Harris said Tuesday to a cheering audience at a convention of Black women missionaries. “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.”
It was the latest volley in a rhetorical war over Florida’s new education standards that has escalated in recent days.
And it highlights the elevated role that Harris has been taking: Leading the White House charge against Republicans vying to face off against President Biden in the 2024 campaign.
Harris's trip to Orlando was her second to Florida in just over a week, after the state cleared new school guidelines that, in part, require teachers to instruct middle school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." It's language that DeSantis defends against strong pushback from Democrats and leading Black Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Two days after the new guidelines were approved, Harris and her aides organized a trip to the state’s largest city of Jacksonville and denounced “extremists” who she argued were forcing “propaganda” on Florida schoolchildren.