Photo courtesy CNN
Ron Desantis, Governor of Florida, and his administration have decided to reject an AP African American history course for high schoolers on January 20.
According to documents obtained by ABC News written by the Florida Department of Education, the administration decided the course was inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacked educational value.” The document continued to challenge the accuracy of the content now included in the proposed curriculum.
“If the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion,”
College Board defined the rejected course: “The interdisciplinary course reaches into a variety of fields — literature, the arts and humanities, political science, geography and science — to explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans,”
Fortunately, despite the Florida governor and administration’s decision, many schools across the country continue to keep it in their lessons for the upcoming school year.
The AP course is receiving support at the federal level even after the Florida administration rejected it. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, criticized DeSantis’ decision not to reject other predominantly white history classes.
“The state chooses to block a course that is meant for high-achieving high school students to learn about their history of arts and culture. It is incomprehensible, again, and I will just leave it there to make your own determination of why this occurred and why this happened.”
The Florida Department of Education took to Twitter to attempt to defend its choice to ban the teaching of AP African American history, stating that it contained numerous alleged violations of Florida law. The Department explained in the caption, “Despite the lies from the Biden White House, Florida rejected an AP course filled with Critical Race Theory and other obvious violations of Florida law. We proudly require the teaching of African American history. We do not accept woke indoctrination masquerading as education,”
The photo shared alongside the post shows the course, including aspects of Critical Race Theory, Black Queer Studies, and the Reparations Movement.