The Pasco County school board on Tuesday unanimously approved a controversial textbook by radio host Dave Ramsey, despite concerns that the materials don't meet the standards of a new, graduation-required course in financial literacy in Florida.
After 57 members of the public objected to the textbook, "Foundations in Personal Finance 4th edition," a hearing officer in October recommended its adoption anyway, ruling that the district followed all the proper procedures and that references to the Bible in the textbook did not violate any laws.
Ramsey is an evangelical Christian who doles out rapid-fire financial advice on his popular talk show, urging people to avoid debt, steer clear of credit cards and pay cash whenever possible.
Critics have pointed to the textbook's habit of describing people as "broke" and describing debt as "dumb" and a "sin." Some community members who read the materials said they fell short on explaining complicated math concepts students would need to understand.
Among those leading the objections to the Ramsey textbook was Jessica Wright, a former teacher and volunteer with the Florida Freedom to Read Project.
"We will be setting both our teachers and our students up for failure should we pass this overall book and require it to be taught to every single student," Wright told the school board Tuesday.
"Our teachers and our kids need support. But this would be like offering them salt water in the desert. This would not be an appropriate instructional material that would actually meet the overall standards," she said.
The Ramsey textbook showed up on the state department of education's approved list of materials this year for the first time. In previous years it was listed as "not approved."
While Pasco officials said that meant they could choose to use it, they also acknowledged it is not actually approved for the new half-credit course that is underway.
The new course is required for the class of 2027 to graduate under a law signed last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
As legislators keep adding new courses and placing new requirements on schools, it puts a squeeze on districts as they attempt to adopt appropriate textbooks, Pasco County Schools' director of the Office for Leading and Learning, Lea Mitchell, told the school board.
"I would say in response to the public comment, there is absolutely accuracy in the fact that the misalignment of state timelines puts every single school district in the state of Florida in a very hard position, deleting course codes, making new graduation requirements all in the midst of annual adoptions," said Mitchell.
It "really does put us in a position where we have to make decisions for what's best for our students in the moment," she said.
"What we know is we have children sitting in courses right now and their teachers are asking us for support," added Mitchell.
In the future, Mitchell said the district plans to wait a year before adopting new textbooks and will not buy the Ramsey book for a five-year cycle at a cost of $575,000, as initially planned.
"Moving forward as a district, we have made the decision... to really postpone all adoptions to the year after the adoption cycle at the state level, so that we never again are in a position to be in this cross section," Mitchell told the school board.
"I will say though, it does hit our pocketbooks in that all adoption cycles are within contracts. And it creates what's called gap years where you then are out of contract and paying sometimes double, triple, quadruple the costs. And so it is a convergence of many, many different complex issues. That put us here today," she added.
A district spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on details of the new contract for the Ramsey textbook, which will be inked to his company, The Lampo Group, LLC.
The school district in St. Johns County, near Jacksonville, is also considering adopting the Ramsey textbook, according to a meeting on the matter held earlier this week.
