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This article alleges that the only books approved by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education were published by "Accelerate Learning", a company which happens to have employed fellow Republican Governor Glen Youngkin:

The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, acquired Accelerate Learning on Dec. 20, 2018, according to the firm's website.

During that time, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was the co-CEO of the firm. After 25 years with the company, Youngkin resigned in 2020 to run for office in Virginia.

Is it true that Accelerate Learning is now the only permitted supplier of K-5 Maths textbooks in Florida?

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The headline is slightly misleading, but the story is accurate.

All approved books for regular K-5 math are published by Accelerate Learning. There are 3 approved books for accelerated math in 3rd and 4th grade published by other companies. As the linked article says:

For regular math classes, Accelerate Learning's STEMscopes Florida Math books are the only option for school districts.

There are two more publisher options for accelerated math, McGraw Hill LLC and Savvas Learning Company LLC, formerly known as Pearson K12 Learning LLC.

This can be seen in the list of approved books from the Florida Department of Education here.

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As noted in press releases from the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, Accelerate Learning, Inc. (ALI) was invested in by the Carlyle Group in 2018.

In 2018, ALI expanded its investor support through a partnership with Carlyle.

Glenn Youngkin worked at The Carlyle Group for 25 years, and retired as Co-CEO in 2020.

Global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announced that Glenn Youngkin has decided to step down as co-CEO of The Carlyle Group and the Board of Directors has appointed Kewsong Lee, who has served as co-CEO with Glenn, as the firm’s chief executive officer.

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    Does Carlyle also invest in any other textbook companies? It's quite possible that this tie-in would be true almost no matter which textbooks were
    – Barmar
    Apr 26, 2022 at 13:40
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    The story may be approximately accurate, but its implication that there is some kind of cronyism going on is weak. One should note well that according to the article (1) (only) 40% of around 125 proposed textbooks were rejected, and (2) Florida claims that they were rejected for content reasons (related to sociopolitical topics, not mathematical ones). That Youngkin's ALI and DeSantis's Florida might have similar views on what sociopolitical themes are appropriate for K-5 textbooks is not a surprise. That some other publishers might have conflicting ideas wouldn't surprise me, at least.
    – John Bollinger
    Apr 26, 2022 at 14:00
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    @JohnBollinger - I would say that the story's implication that there is some kind of cronyism going on is not just weak, but non-existant. I see background information on Florida's laws, and on the two companies involved, but no implication of cronyism.
    – Mark
    Apr 26, 2022 at 18:53
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    @JohnBollinger That particular claim (2) would be easier to substantiate if the state would release the disqualifying passages in the rejected texts.
    – corsiKa
    Apr 26, 2022 at 22:57
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    @corsiKa There is a (possibly paywalled) New York Times article examining passages from the rejected books. It's mostly about "social and emotional learning", developing a "growth mindset", writing down a "math biography" etc.: Help students to become aware of their relationship to math and potentially improve it. Basically apply concepts developed in business and personal counseling. As we know, many students struggle in math, so there is a clear need of and room for improvement. The government didn't like the approach.
    – Peter - Reinstate Monica
    Apr 27, 2022 at 11:11

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