Miami-Dade Schools To Institute More Anti-Racism Instruction

MIAMI, FLA. – Teachers in the Miami-Dade County public school system will begin teaching lessons about anti-racism as part of their curriculum beginning in the current school year following a nearly unanimous vote of the school board on Wednesday night.

Board members approved the measure with an 8-1 vote indicating that the district must take a harder stance on racism, especially now when protests have been held across the country following the death of George Floyd, who died while in the custody of white Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.

The measure includes a requirement that instructs all district administrators to report back to the board by Aug. 12 with recommendations for how changes in curriculum and instruction can be added into daily teaching practices. It also indicates that each district is to establish a student-led task force that meets monthly to discuss issues of racism and then report back to the board each quarter.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told board members that his office has received hundreds of calls insulting both him and the board. But he said, especially given recent events, the need to address issues of racial injustice and inequality has become a priority.

“If anything, it further legitimizes the need to continue to tackle no matter how difficult it might be the themes of social injustice and equality,” Carvalho said during the meeting.

Board members said during Wednesday’s meeting that they have received hundreds of phone calls and emails that accuse them of trying to indoctrinate students with communist ideas.

Marta Perez, who was the lone board member to vote against the measure, said she has received angry calls because of her opposition to implementing the change since it was introduced in committee meetings. She said she believes that the current curriculum already teaches inclusion and that teaching should focus on academics rather than issues of social justice.

“I’m the one person that did not support the item. And I believe I received more hate mail than any of you,” Perez said during the meeting. “’Go back to Cuba,’ calling me every name. It’s very funny how offended everyone is where different points of view are expressed.”

But other board members, including Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, one of two black members, said although racism existed long before Floyd’s death, students in a district that includes 345,000 students and 392 schools, need to be taught about what has happened.

“It is hard to take a stance that talks about the wrongs of 400 plus years, and I know what people are going to say ‘well, I didn’t do it. It wasn’t my fault,'" she said during Wednesday's meeting. "But what is it that we do? What do we tell our children?'"