A district hearing found that Dave Ramsey’s controversial financial literacy textbook can be used in Pasco County, despite objections from community members.
This comes after the adoption of the textbook perched the concerns of dozens of members of the public, who say the book uses Bible references, Ramsey’s personal beliefs, and lacked academic rigor.
WUSF’s Sky Lebron spoke with Kerry Sheridan about the latest hearing, and what’s next for the school district.
Sky Lebron: Can you tell me a bit more about the hearing and what was discussed, for context?
Kerry Sheridan: Well, the issue is over a new textbook by Dave Ramsey, and it's about personal financial literacy. And some people had objected to it saying that it leaned very heavily on his personal views. He's a conservative radio host, an evangelical Christian, who's very against debt. They felt that it didn't really have the academic rigor that it needed. It didn't show a balance of perspectives from other economists, and that it contained Bible quotes that they felt shouldn't be in public schools. And they got to be heard in front of an objective hearing officer going up against the school district of Pasco County with lawyers and witnesses, who told the hearing officer that they followed all the rules. So after a week, that hearing officer issued his decision, and he decided in favor of the Pasco County School District. He said their arguments were very convincing. They didn't break any laws. They didn't break any rules. And the textbook can be adopted and should be adopted going forward.
SL: What does community reaction been like so far?
KS: Well, those who objected to it, of course, are disappointed. They wanted to be heard. They were heard. But their concerns, perhaps, were glossed over by the district's case being that they just followed procedure. And since the state of Florida has moved the Dave Ramsey [book] over to an approved list of textbooks, Pasco County was saying ‘we can use it, the state of Florida says we can use it, we can use it.’ But the people who objected say this course is so new — this new personal financial literacy course that's required by the state of Florida — that the standards for it aren't even out yet. So according to state law, any textbook that is adopted has to align with the state standards. And they wanted to say, let's just hold off that we don't even have those standards for the new course. So why rush to approve a textbook for it?
SL: So like you just mentioned, there's been a lot of pushback from parents and just community members who have been concerned with the adoption of this textbook. Do you know if there's any plan for them to continue those efforts? Or does this ruling kind of dash any of that?
KS: They're considering what options they have to continue, because they do want the best quality materials for their students. That's their argument. And the issue will come up on Nov. 7 at the Pasco County School Board meeting. And you'll hear people speak about it during the public comment period again, and the district will likely make its decision at that time. And they may well decide to go ahead and use that textbook.
SL: Does this at all set a precedent? Are we are we likely to see similar things happening in other school districts after something like this is done in Pasco?
KS: Well, you know, I can't predict the future. But I would say yeah, it does seem like something that could definitely set a precedent for other school districts to do the same going forward. Pasco County has told me they plan to spend $575,000 on this textbook. That's sort of in line with what a major textbook purchase like this costs. It's not out of the ordinary, but it is a big expenditure, especially if you consider that Florida has 67 counties. This could be quite a financial windfall for the Ramsey group.
