In January of this year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration rejected a pilot version of the College Board’s new Advanced Placement course on African American studies.
In a letter to the College Board, Florida’s Department of Education called the new course “historically inaccurate,” “ideological” and a violation of Florida state law.
In a subsequent press conference, DeSantis stated that the state was blocking the course because it included topics such as queer theory and abolishing prisons.
“That’s a political agenda,” added DeSantis.
Within weeks, the College Board released a revised framework for the course, which replaced the original pilot version, and which eliminated much of the material to which Florida and many conservatives had objected.
The College Board added “Black conservatism” as a research project idea and eliminated the discussion of “Black Lives Matter,” Black feminism, critical race theory and queer theory.
In an interview, David Coleman, head of the College Board, denied that the changes were made because of political pressure, but for pedagogical reasons based on the input of professors and had been in the works for months.
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the College Board’s position on the curriculum changes may not have been correct.
Based on emails obtained via open-records requests, it seems that many of the faculty advisors who sit on the AP course’s development committee were not consulted about the changes.
One of those professors, Nishani Frazier, is quoted in an email stating, the course was “edited behind our backs” and accused the College Board of institutional racism, lying and “capitulation.”
Whether or not the College Board caved to the pressures of Florida is certainly an interesting question, but it is not the key moral of this story.
What the brouhaha over the AP African American study course really illustrates is the lack of transparency and lack of input parents have over the education of their children.
The College Board’s advanced placement courses have effectively become a national curriculum for American high school students who want to pursue four-year college degrees.
According to the College Board, nearly 1.2 million students representing nearly 35% of U.S. public high school graduates took at least one AP Exam in 2021.
Of course, no parent or local school board voted to have such a national curriculum, nor have given input on the contents of that curriculum.
Moreover, as the Journal’s reporting demonstrated, the development of advanced placement curriculum is secretive and opaque.
In fact, secrecy is exactly how woke ideology is infused into our schools.
Florida was correct for calling out and rejecting the College Board’s woke agenda, and standing up against the political indoctrination of its state’s children.
But what if Florida had not done so?
How many American children would have been exposed to anti-American and illiberal ideologies such as critical race theory?
How many more children would be turned into progressive activists?
It is about time we have a national conversation about what we should and should not be teaching our children, and about returning control of our children’s education to their parents and away from unaccountable monopolies like the College Board.
Andrew Gutmann (R-FL) is a Congressional Candidate for Florida’s 22nd District.