The Florida State Board of Education is setting student reading and math goals for 2018 by race and some parents are not too happy about that.
The board says by 2018 it wants 90 percent of Asian students, 88 percent of white students, 81 percent of Hispanics and 74 percent of black students to be reading at or above grade level.
For math, the goals are 92 percent of Asian students, 86 percent for whites, Hispanics at 80 percent and blacks at 74 percent.
Board members said the goals are not mean to lower expectations for some students. They said the targets take into account current levels.
"We feel that it's very, very important to have these goals so that we can draw attention to where our students are now, where each of subgroups are so that schools and parents and teachers can all focus on where we are and where we need to be eventually," Interim Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said.
Melissa Erickson, an education advocate with the group Fund Education Now, said she's angry some children are expected to do better than others based on their race.
"We don't think that up to 30 percent of one subgroup is an acceptable loss," Erickson said. "No child is an acceptable loss. In this state if we put the proper resources and the proper support in place every child could succeed. The state has chosen not to do that and now thinks it's okay to just write off some kids from the start."
Erickson said she plans to send a letter to the US Department of Education asking for an investigation.
The Florida Department of Education says the ultimate goal is for all students to be 100 proficient by the 2022-2023 school year.