Florida Lawmaker Says Common Core Will Turn Kids Gay

Common Core standards are a divisive topic in education circles, but one Florida lawmaker is taking his anti-Common Core message to a new level.

State Rep. Charles Van Zant (R) said the American Institutes for Research, which has been assigned to develop Common Core-based tests for Florida, "are promoting as hard as they can, any youth that is interested in the LGBT agenda."

Van Zant made those comments at the Operation Education Conference in Orlando back in March. Video of his comments was posted on ThinkProgress on Monday.

"These people that will now receive $220 million from the state of Florida, unless this is stopped, will promote double-mindedness in state education and will attract every one of your children to become as homosexual as they possibly can," Van Zant said.

Van Zant concluded by telling the crowd, "I’m sorry to report that to you ... I really hate to believe that news, but you need to know."

AIR has pushed back on similar claims.

"We are not an advocacy group," AIR spokesman Larry McQuillan told PolitiFact in March. "AIR is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization. We do educational assessment, research, health policy research and communication, and international development. We have supported many states by providing high-quality assessments of their specific state standards."