Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday denounced the Florida Board of Education’s new standards for teaching about slavery in schools, calling them an attempt by extremists to spread propaganda.

The Florida Board of Education approved new standards Wednesday in a 216-page document detailing how public schools should approach the teaching of slavery.

Speaking in Jacksonville, Harris said the recently approved curriculum, which suggests some slaves may have benefited from skills they learned through forced labor, is based on a policy designed to deceive children.

“I’m very concerned because let’s be clear, I really think this isn’t just about Florida. There’s a national agenda coming in,” Harris said at a press conference in the Sunshine State. Among the new guidelines for teachers are some controversial “normative clarifications,” including one for high school students which states that slaves developed skills that, in some cases, they could use for personal gain.

Harris added that adults know what slavery really is… It means subjugating people and making them less than human. “How could anyone suggest that, in the midst of such atrocities, there was any benefit for slaves from being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” Harris said.

“They want to replace history with lies,” Harris said. “These so-called extremists should set an example of what we know to be the right and proper facts if we really want to invest in the well-being of our children. Instead, they dare impose this propaganda on our children. This is the United States of America. We shouldn’t do that.”

The vice president spoke of her private school days, where she herself was involved in the public school system where teachers provided “all the information” and encouraged students to “draw their own conclusions and think critically.” It is because of this approach, Harris said, that I stand before you as Vice President of the United States.