Earlier this month, the state of Florida’s education department rejected a pilot African American studies course for its high school Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum.
When asked about the AP African American studies course that was banned in Florida, Ron DeSantis goes in a homophobic rant that includes railing against intersectionality while doing his best Trump impression. This is about banning ideas he doesn’t like, plain and simple. pic.twitter.com/3PCVwctHPY
— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) January 23, 2023
According to NewsJax4, a letter sent from the education department to the College Board said the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
On Monday, DeSantis addressed the denial during a press conference in Jacksonville stating the state has an “education, not indoctrination” guideline all curriculums must follow.
“In the state of Florida, our education standards not only don’t prevent but they require teaching Black history, all the important things, that’s part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis said.
“This was a separate course on top of that for Advanced Placement credit. And the issue is we have guidelines and standards in Florida. We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re going to decline, if it’s education, then we will do. So when I heard it didn’t meet the standards, I figured, yeah, they may be doing way more than that. This course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” he said.
“Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids. And so when you look to see they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that’s a political agenda. And so, that’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes,” he added.
According to NewsJax4, the College Board website describes the AP pilot course as “interdisciplinary, touching on literature, arts, humanities, political science, geography, and science”.
Last year, DeSantis signed the Stop WOKE Act which bans certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses.
