An update from teachers on classrooms since 2022 education laws rolled out

Florida Matters

Teachers have been navigating challenging and confusing times since education laws rolled out in 2022. In this episode, we get an update on what their classrooms have been like since. For the past couple of years, public school teachers in Florida have navigated some challenging, and at times confusing, changes to what they teach and how they teach it. Legislation was rolled out in 2022 with restrictions on classroom instruction on race, gender identity and sexual orientation. Transgender students have faced restrictions on what bathrooms they’re allowed access to. Teachers are now required to convey that under enslavement, some African Americans gained skills that later benefited them, a change heavily criticized by teachers and some state officials. And there’s been increased scrutiny, and in some cases removal, of books on teachers’ shelves and in school libraries. WUSF’s Kerry Sheridan, who covers K-12 education and has been reporting on how teachers have been dealing with the new laws over the last couple of years, joins Florida Matters along with Gail Foreman who teaches social studies, history, and AICE psychology at Booker High in Sarasota, and Brandt Robinson, a history teacher at Dunedin High School.