College Board Slams Florida for ‘Slander’ Over AP African American Course
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
The College Board has finally hit back at Florida’s attempts to paint an AP African American Studies class as an indoctrination effort that “lacks educational value.” The education nonprofit slammed the DeSantis administration’s “slander” of the class and organization in a statement Saturday, offering an apology for not pushing back sooner and poking holes in Florida officials’ attempts to “engineer a political win.” “Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field,” the statement reads. Despite releasing a revised framework following Gov. DeSantis’ incessant complaints about the “woke” class, the College Board also wants to set the record straight that the changes had nothing to do with him. And although Florida claimed the College Board removed 19 topics at their behest, the nonprofit says that the state not only never formally asked them to remove those topics, but many remain in the course. “Florida is attempting to claim a political victory by taking credit retroactively for changes we ourselves made but that they never suggested to us,” the College Board said, further explaining that course subjects such as the Black Lives Matter movement and mass incarceration were intended as “optional topics in the pilot course.”