Submitted by Anna Kaufman USA TODAY
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, angling to overtake former President Donald Trump as defector leader of the GOP, has made a name for himself as a culture warrior by spearheading highly provocative legislation and dubbing his state the place “woke goes to die.”
In the runup to a likely run for president, he picked a fight with one of the nation’s most powerful educational institutions, The College Board, over course material in an AP African American Studies class. The dispute became a national lightning rod for discussions on race, censorship and what is – or is not – essential American history.
The controversy continues: College Board announces more changes for AP African American Studies course amid outcry.
What are AP classes?
AP courses – short for Advanced Placement – are college-level classes offered to high schoolers. They are developed by the College Board, a nonprofit education organization that has been around for more than a century. High school students can earn college credits by taking AP classes.
For many students, taking AP courses and passing the corresponding exams can offer a leg up in the college-admissions process.
DeSantis, Florida ban AP African American Studies
Florida Department of Education officials in a Jan. 12 letter rejected aspects of the AP African American Studies curriculum, saying it violated state law and was “significantly” lacking in educational value.
Though the letter did not say which state law the course violated, in 2022, DeSantis signed the Stop WOKE Act, a statute that restricts how schools and workplaces can facilitate conversations around sexuality, race, national origin and gender. “We believe in education, not indoctrination,” DeSantis said at the bill’s signing. A portion of the legislation that took aim at higher education was struck down by a federal judge who called it “positively dystopian.”
After the letter was made public, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. tweeted an infographic enumerating the ways in which the AP African Studies course violated state law.
In his first public comments on the AP African American Studies course, DeSantis lambasted the curriculum for including information about “queer theory,” “intersectionality” and “abolishing prisons.” The course, he intimated, would push a certain agenda on students.
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How did the College Board respond?
AP African American Studies is still in its pilot phase, offered in only 60 schools nationwide as the College Board weighs feedback from teachers, students, scholars, and policymakers. No schools in Florida were offering the pilot course. Additional schools will offer the class during the 2023-24 school year, and the course will be officially launched the following year.
The College Board responded to DeSantis’ criticism by noting that the course was not yet finished. “We will publicly release the updated course framework when it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools,” the organization said in a Jan. 20 statement.
However, Florida’s feud with the College Board only escalated when that curriculum was released in February, and it appeared to omit some of the writers and concepts DeSantis’ government had specifically taken issue with. Many critical of DeSantis’ approach were outraged by the changes, accusing the College Board of giving into Republican interests.
In response to a New York Times article claiming that it had capitulated to Florida’s demands, the College Board fired back, saying it had timestamped evidence that the changes were made before the state voiced any objection.
Some groups called for College Board CEO David Coleman to resign. Coleman told USA TODAY, along with other news outlets, that tweaks to the curriculum were independent of Florida’s complaints. Communications made public, however, reveal the College Board was in correspondence with Florida lawmakers frequently in the months leading up to the release.
“By no coincidence, we were grateful to see that the College Board’s revised February 1, 2023, framework removed 19 topics, many of which FDOE cited as conflicting with Florida law, including discriminatory and historically fictional topics,” the Florida Department of Education wrote in a Feb. 7 letter to the College Board.
The College Board lambasted those characterizations, saying its topics are historically accurate and denying it bowed to any political pressure. Many of the concepts remained optional to the curriculum, the statement said, and were not trimmed at the behest of Florida officials.
Still, some activists and leaders in the Black community voiced skepticism.
In late April, seemingly in response to the harsh criticism, the College Board announced it would revisit the curriculum. “We are committed to providing an unflinching encounter with the facts and evidence of African American history and culture,” the organization said in a statement.
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How did the AP African American studies curriculum change?
Some concepts were stripped outright, while others are now what the College Board calls supplemental materials. A who’s who of prominent Black authors disappeared from the curriculum, including those whose work deals with Critical Race Theory – a favorite target of DeSantis and a growing contingent of conservatives.
Among the concepts removed from the framework was intersectionality: the idea that people’s identities can overlap and compound their oppression. For example, a person’s identity as a woman, and as a Black person, might present unique challenges in the American system, informed by the intersection of both experiences. Works dealing explicitly with this topic from advocate and scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the term, as well as Bell Hooks and Angela Davis were notably removed from the curriculum.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, a celebrated author whose writing was scrubbed from course material, said in an appearance on “CBS Mornings” that DeSantis’ efforts, including the Stop WOKE Act, were “deeply antithetical to the project of education.” The risk, he said, was producing a generation of students deeply misinformed about the country they live in.
As for the “queer theory” DeSantis referenced, the word “queer” can be found in neither the original nor the revised course framework. The class did, however, originally offer instruction on The Movement for Black Lives, which advocates for an end to mass incarceration and “the war on Black trans, queer, gender non-conforming, and intersex people.”
That section is now part of the “Sample Project Topics” section, which is optional. Also on that list is the argument for reparations, an idea Coates’ writing touches upon, and Black Lives Matter, a movement against police brutality.
AP African American Studies course: A breakdown of what was removed or changed
The backlash has been powerful
Backlash over DeSantis’ ban of the AP curriculum and the revisions released by the College Board was swift.
“Black history is not inferior, and Black history does not lack educational value,” the Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes Jr., a pastor of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee, said. Holmes, who gave the closing prayer at DeSantis’ first inauguration in 2019, was speaking at a gathering of religious leaders, professors, and local officials earlier this year.
Notable civil rights lawyer Ben Crump and activist the Rev. Al Sharpton have also participated in protests, rallying crowds against what they say is an attack on Black history and Black Floridians.
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DeSantis, College Board feud grows
In February, DeSantis took his gripe with the College Board beyond the AP African Studies curriculum, suggesting the state could find an alternative to the Board for all the services it provides. In addition to designing AP courses, the College Board administers the SAT and PSAT, essential tests for admissions and financial aid at many schools.
“Nobody elected (the College Board) to anything,” DeSantis said during a press conference. “They’re just … providing services, and so you can either utilize those services or not.”
In Florida, over half of graduating seniors have taken at least one AP class – one of the country’s highest participation rates. There is no widely recognized alternative, though students can earn early college credits by taking community college courses or through the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The latter is not widely available, however.
DeSantis has made his mark on education in a number of other ways already this year. Florida now has a universal school voucher program, the “Don’t Say Gay” law is being expanded, and teachers unions face strict new rules.
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