Tuesday’s rally was the latest chapter in an ongoing saga over whether Florida will finally allow students to enroll in the next College Board course on African American history.
Florida’s Department of Education first raised public concerns about the course in January by rejecting a pilot version on the grounds that it “grossly lacks educational value” and violates Florida’s “anti-revival” law. the state. State officials later explained that the refusal of the course was motivated by lessons that delved too far into political agendas, touching on topics such as queer studies and the abolition of prisons.
Those subjects, however, are not required as part of the official African American history course that was released Feb. 1, a turn of events that has led Democrats to criticize the College Board for allegedly caving in to conservatives. College Board officials, however, argue that Florida, or any other state, has not influenced the course which has been in development for nearly a decade and will debut in the 2024-2025 school year. .
In the wake of the tense back and forth between the organization and Florida, DeSantis this week suggested the state could turn away from the College Board and seek a different provider for students to take college-level courses. He hinted that the Florida House might come up with legislation to tackle that, but nothing was tabled Wednesday.
The Florida Department of Education, for its part, said Wednesday that the College Board has yet to submit the African American Studies course to the state for review.
“Florida students are going to have that ability (to get college credit) — it’s not going to diminish,” DeSantis said Tuesday at an event in Jacksonville. “In fact, we will continue to expand it. But it’s not clear to me that this particular operator is the one that should be used in the future.
Democratic lawmakers argue the DeSantis administration chose the fight with the College Board to help the governor’s case as a potential 2024 GOP nominee.
“That’s the rub with this guy: If you dare to speak out against him, he’ll come after you,” Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa), House Minority Leader, said at the rally Wednesday. “It’s his MO, he wants us to be intimidated and scared. »
Along with Democrats, Black Clergy and Sharpton have called for voter registration efforts as a way to stand up to the DeSantis administration for allegedly whitewashing history by opposing the…