A wide-ranging, 40-page education bill being considered by the Florida Legislature has tucked away in it two lines that are worrying some educational experts.
Under Senate Bill 7036, a school district could purchase instructional materials developed by or under the direction of the Florida Department of Education.
Experts worry this could open the door for Florida to develop something like Texas' Bluebonnet curriculum.
Bluebonnet learning is a state-developed curriculum that can be used to teach English, reading and math to elementary and middle school students in Texas' public schools. The curriculum was developed to align with state standards.
Schools that opt into using the free curriculum get $60 per student per year in additional funding.
The controversy around the curriculum arises because it's Bible-based, which has led to concerns over whether it respects a separation of church and state, and different students' religious beliefs and cultural backgrounds.
Pam Little is on the Texas Board of Education. She's also a self-described Christian and conservative Republican. She formerly served as regional vice president for Houghton Mifflin Publishers.
Little voted against using Bluebonnet in Texas classrooms. And she says she has a warning for Florida.
"I really don't think that the state needs to be developing instructional materials. I feel like that it's just moving towards a cookie cutter approach to education, which I really disagree with, because we know that every child learns differently, and we have to address those learning styles," Little said.
In total, the Texas Education Agency that developed the curriculum has had to fix almost 4,200 errors in the curriculum. She says these are rookie mistakes that happen when the department of education, and not publishers, are writing curriculum.
In one instance the curriculum improperly used hundreds of images they hadn't gotten permission to use. She said she's worried that sets the state up for liability.
Little said there's been a lot of objections, too, about the quality of the books. They don't meet certain binding specifications other publishers would normally be held to, and the books are falling apart.
Then there were the objections from parents, including Christian parents.
"There were many, many conservative Christian parents who did not want to see the Bible in instructional materials. They felt that that was their responsibility to teach their, whatever religion they believed in to their children, and not that of a public entity, like a school district or or a teacher."
Other Republicans in Texas are for it, including Gov. Greg Abbott.
"The passage of Bluebonnet Learning is a critical step forward to bring students back to the basics of education and provide the best education in the nation," Abbott said when Bluebonnet was approved.
Proponents of the proposed Florida legislation say it could save school districts money, as department-developed resources could be free or low-cost for schools to use. Plus, they say some materials and resources developed and marketed by publishing companies are simply not age-appropriate for the students that use them.
If it becomes law, the only stipulation to use materials developed by the department would be that they align with state teaching standards.
Read the full bill here:
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