DeSantis says publishers took 'the woke out' of the math books he banned for containing Critical Race Theory

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said over 50 math books submitted for review were "doing woke math."
• DeSantis blocked a record number of textbooks in April over concerns about CRT.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down on his decision to exclude a record number of math books from classrooms that he said included bits of "woke math."

"These math books — they were doing woke math," DeSantis said, referring to Florida's rejection of dozens of math textbooks in April. His remarks came Friday in Tampa at an event for Moms for Liberty, a conservative nonprofit.

"I'm just thinking to myself, like, two plus two equals four, right? It's not 'two plus two equals, well, how do you feel about that? Is that an injustice?'" he quipped to an audience that responded with laughter.

"No, we gotta teach the kids to get the right answer," he continued as the crowd applauded.

According to an April press release from Florida's Department of Education, state reviewers found allusions to Critical Race Theory in 54 out of 132 math textbooks submitted by school districts.

DeSantis and the FDOE referred to the content in the books as "attempts to indoctrinate students" and rejected the submissions.

In May, the department released a 6,000-page report reviewing each of the books, according to Politico. The report noted instances where books were rejected for mentioning "racial profiling in policing" and "types of housing for different groups of people."

On Friday, DeSantis said the publishers removed the pieces of the textbooks that the state said contained Critical Race Theory.

They "took the woke out and sent us back normal math books," said DeSantis.

"It doesn't matter how you feel about the math problem," the Republican governor said in April after rejecting the books. "It matters whether you can solve the math problem.