College Board changing after DeSantis blocks course on African American studies

(WSVN) – The fallout continues after Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education blocked a course on African American studies.

Prominent Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump said he is now suing the governor because of what he did.

College Board, which is a nonprofit, announced the rejected program of their AP African American Studies course would be updated.

“African American history is a part of American History,” said Miami-Dade School Board member Steve Gallon.

On Tuesday, College Board told a Tampa news station in a statement that “before a new AP course is made broadly available, it is piloted in a small number of high schools to gather feedback from high schools and colleges. The official course framework incorporates this feedback and defines what students will encounter on the AP Exam for college credit and placement.”

Earlier this week, the governor protested and said that the course pushed a political agenda.

“We want education, not indoctrination,” said DeSantis.

The course creators seemed to have heard the message.

“What’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory?” said DeSantis.

But some people think the governor is just trying to shift the focus from his original statement.

“I think that it is a total distraction from their original statement. Their original statement was that African American studies bring no value to education,” said State Senator Shevrin Jones.

Among the topics covered in the course are African diaspora, literature and music.

The Florida Department of Education released a chart showing some of its concerns that included discussions of Black Lives Matter, reparations and activism, including readings the department finds problematic.

“Just imagine how boring and closed-minded we’d all be if we only read ideas we agreed with,” said State Rep. Fentrice Driskell.

The governor’s press secretary Bryan Griffin said in a tweet that this is excellent news and that they will be reviewing the changes for compliance once resubmitted.

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