Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is defending his administration’s decision to scrap a pilot African American studies advanced placement program in Florida high schools after a national backlash.
Speaking at a news conference unveiling his 2023 education platform on Monday, DeSantis said the state wants “education, not indoctrination.”
“In the state of Florida, our educational standards not only do not prevent, but require the teaching of black history, all the important things. It’s part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis said.
“It was a separate course in addition to the one for advanced credit, and the problem is that we have guidelines and standards in Florida,” he continued. “We want education, not indoctrination.” If you side with indoctrination, we will give up. If it’s education, then we’ll do it.
DeSantis said that when he first heard the course was substandard, he thought the course was supposed to teach critical race theory — an academic theory that argues systemic racism is rooted in the U.S., which DeSantis has in the past called “a pile of horse manure.”
After reading the course description, DeSantis said he saw “it’s so much more than that.”
“What is one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” DeSantis said. “Now, who would say that an important part of black history is a queer theory? This is someone pushing an agenda on our children. So when you look to see that they have things about intersectionality, prison abolition, that’s a political agenda. So we’re on the — this is the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe in forcing an agenda on them. When you try to use black history to underpin queer theory, you’re obviously trying to use that for political purposes.
The DeSantis administration sent a letter to the College Board on Jan. 12 rejecting the new AP African American Studies course, saying “the content of this course is inexplicably inconsistent with Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
In a statement to The Hill last week, DeSantis’ office outlined the Department of Education’s main concerns about the course, which includes the topics of intersectionality, black queer studies, the Black Lives Matter movement, black feminist literary thought, the reparations movement, and black studies and the Black struggle through 21st Century.
Key readings by Kimberle Crenshaw, the “founder” of intersectionality, Angela Davis, “self-confessed communist and Marxist,” Roderick Ferguson, Leslie Kay Jones, Bell Hawks, and Robin DG Kelly have also been cause for concern.
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DeSantis’ decision sparked outrage from Democrats across the country. On Friday, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre called the decision “incomprehensible.”
“If you think about the study of black Americans, that’s what he wants to block,” Jean-Pierre said. “This type of action is not new. They are not new from what we see, especially from Florida. Unfortunately, Florida currently prohibits teachers from talking about who they are and who they love.
“They have not blocked AP’s European history. They haven’t blocked our musical history. We have not been blocked from art history. But the state is choosing to block a course designed for high-achieving high school students to learn about its arts and culture history. This is incomprehensible,” she continued.
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