TAMPA, Fla. — Changes to Florida's education system are causing controversy once again.
This comes after the Florida Department of Education announced its partnership with PragerU Kids, a conservative-leaning media company.
The Florida Education Association's president, Andrew Spar, released a video on Facebook responding to the move and sharing his concerns about the decision.
"Teachers aren't pushing an agenda. They're pushing to educate children. This is pushing an agenda," he said in his video.
In an interview with ABC Action News, the company's CEO, Marissa Streit, defended their content.
"If people take the videos out of context, I'm sure they can twist into a pretzel, but that's certainly not what we're teaching here," she said. "When it comes to material, how it is different is our content is completely wholesome and pro-American."
It's a move that's also left parents on either side of the debate.
"The topics are good, but I don’t know the content: 'How to take ownership of your life,' 'Otto’s tale,' 'The national anthem and the pledge of allegiance,' 'Cash course: using financial institutions,'" said Palm Beach parent Michael Chavers.
"The governor is really hobbling the Florida schools right now," said Pasco County parent and teacher Myndee Washington.
Local school districts, like Pinellas County, are also weighing in.
"I believe this should not be utilized, so I asked the chief academic officer if it would be used in Pinellas County schools, and I was informed that the district has no plans of adding these resources to [the] curriculum," said school board member Caprice Edmond.
In addition to Pinellas County, Polk, Pasco, and Hillsborough schools have also told ABC Action News that they have no plans of adding it to the curriculum.
Both Manatee and Sarasota schools told us they were working to confirm a decision from their curriculum team.
But despite these answers, Washington said that this content can still be used in the classroom, whether a district mandates it or not.
"So a school district saying, 'We're not going to say on Monday you have to teach this PragerU lesson' does not mean that a teacher or, a big fear is, a substitute doesn't go in and say 'Well, I heard this thing about PragerU, I'm going to pull this up and we're going to learn a lesson,'" said Washington.
She's also encouraging concerned parents to opt their kids out of that potential instruction through their district.
