On Jan. 12, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote a rejection letter to the state College Board, nixing a new high school Advanced Placement African American Studies (APAAS) course, which he claims violates Florida’s “Stop W.O.K.E.” Act.
The letter reads in part, “as presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
The College Board, which runs the SAT test, recently launched the APAAS pilot of the course in 60 U.S. schools, but conservatives have pounced on the course, alleging that it promotes critical race theory (CRT)—a course that has never been taught anywhere except in law schools and is code for anti-Black American history.
RELATED STORY: Mapping the American education system from the Committee of 10 to today's struggling Black teachers
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In response to DeSantis’ APAAS course rejection, 28 of Florida’s state colleges wrote a joint statement pledging support to DeSantis not to fund any program “that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality.”
The Florida College System (FCS) serves nearly 650,000 students annually.
“Historically, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives served to increase diversity of thought as well as the enrollment and the success of underrepresented populations and promote the open access mission of our state college system. The presidents of the Florida College System (FCS) also understand that some initiatives and instruction in higher education under the same title have come to mean and accomplish the very opposite and seek to push ideologies such as critical race theory and its related tenets,” Dr. John Avendano, president of Florida State College of Jacksonville, said in part on behalf of the FCS presidents.
In a statement sent to The Daily Beast, the College Board said it is in “the process of piloting and revising course frameworks as a standard part of any new AP Course, and frameworks change significantly as a result … We look forward to publicly releasing the updated course framework as soon as it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools.”
Sadly, DeSantis has paved the way for other states to pass similar laws—Texas, Idaho, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Oklahoma are following his lead. Thursday, a Missouri Senate Committee examined two anti-CRT bills without a single Black lawmaker contributing to the conversation.
“We’re asking teachers to not talk about anything that might make parents uncomfortable, and that’s not what the point of education is,” Heather Fleming, a former teacher and the director of the Missouri Equity Education Partnership, a coalition of groups battling against a Republican takeover of education in the state, told The Kansas City Star.
The Star reports one of the bills states no educator can teach “that individuals of any race, ethnicity, color, or national origin are inherently superior or inferior and that individuals, by virtue of their race, ethnicity, color, or national origin, bear collective guilt and are inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by others.”
DeSantis hasn’t stopped at whitewashing history; he’s also passed laws to erase LGBTQ students in his infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Educators in Florida are rightly outraged.
Dr. Marvin Dunn, former professor of psychology at Florida International University and a specialist in the state’s Black history, said, “It means an insult to me, it means an injury to me … Florida is doing its best to shut down discussions about race, slavery, anything having to do with a challenge to the idea that racism is still a real factor in American life today.”
Hillsborough County middle school teacher Denise Thomas Ford, whose students are primarily Black, told The Daily Beast, “Rejecting [the course] means that our students once again will not have access to a true definition of what history looks like from their perspective … And not just an African-American student perspective, but every student needs to have access to this information … If you're not giving them all sides of something so that they can think, you’re damaging them. You’re giving them a biased education.”
What’s happening in Florida is undoubtedly what’s likely to occur across the nation as DeSantis makes his run at the White House. His culture war is escalating fast, and underrepresented students will suffer in its wake.
Florida’s public schools are under a staggering teacher shortage. The Florida Education Associate counted 5,294 open slots as of January 2023. Not to mention 4,600 openings for teacher’s aides and other school employees, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Why would teachers want to work in Florida? The state ranks 16th in the nation for teacher pay, but the average pay ranks 49th in the country.
Here’s a little real American history lesson.
In 1892 there was a turning point in the educational system. It began with the National Educational Association’s (NEA) commission of the “Committee of 10.”
The Committee of 10 was made up of 10 white men, primarily educators, tasked with designing a uniform educational system in America. The committee made the decision that all American students would learn the “traditional” subjects: Latin, Greek, English, modern languages, mathematics, the physical sciences, etc. Students would attend eight years of elementary school followed by four years of high school, and all subjects would be studied for one period each day in a five-day school week.
Anthony Conwright, an African American journalist and educator, explains that structurally, these educational standards weren’t designed to disrupt what happens in society. It was incomprehensible for the committee to imagine the inclusion of the history of Black Americans, the system of slavery, or land stolen from Indigenous people be included in the curriculum—because it was unimaginable to them at the time that students of color (or women) would be sitting in these classrooms.
DeSantis is following in the footsteps of the committee, only in 2023 there are Black, brown, and Indigenous students in classrooms, and he’s denying them a right to learn the genuine and unvarnished history of this country.
“What just happened in Florida, that this is coming your way,” Dunn said. “This suppression of Black history is going to become a national thing if DeSantis and people who support him gain control of the federal government and the White House … I say: You’ve been warned.”
