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What to know about how Florida will teach McCarthyism and the Cold War
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FILE - A student raises her hand at A.D. Henderson School in Boca Raton, Fla., April 16, 2024. - photo by AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Students in Florida's public schools will soon be learning an interpretation of McCarthyism and the Cold War fight against communism that is steeped in the rhetoric of that era, after state education officials voted to approve sweeping new social studies teaching standards Thursday. The standards, which represent the core content Florida students are expected to learn, detail a communist “infiltration” of Civil Rights advocacy groups, include instruction on the use of “'McCarthyism' as an insult” and reference “slander against anti-communists," including the terms "red-baiter and Red Scare." The standards soften decades of reflection on work by former U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who led a political movement to root out what he saw as communism in political, civil rights and artistic communities during the early 1950s.