The College Board this week agreed to revise an AP (Advanced Placement) course on African American Studies after it was rejected by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) over its content, which included a focus on “queer theory” and “intersectionality.”
The College Board has agreed to revise the rejected course, prompting a statement from FDOE Communications Director Alex Lanfranconi.
“We are glad the College Board has recognized that the originally submitted course curriculum is problematic, and we are encouraged to see the College Board express a willingness to amend,” he said in a statement.
“AP courses are standardized nationwide, and as a result of Florida’s strong stance against identity politics and indoctrination, students across the country will consequentially have access to an historically accurate, unbiased course,” he continued.
“As Governor DeSantis said, African American History is American History, and we will not allow any organization to use an academic course as a gateway for indoctrination and a political agenda,” he added, noting that the agency is looking forward to reviewing the changes and removal of problematic facets, such as “Critical Race Theory, Black Queer Studies, Intersectionality, and other topics that violate our laws.”
The decision comes on the heels of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) further defending the decision to reject the course due to its inclusion of politically motivated agenda items, including “queer theory.”
“Now who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids. … When you try to use black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes,” he explained, adding that Florida wants to focus on the basics.
He continued:
We want to do history, and that’s what our standards for black history are. It’s just cut and dried history. You learn all the basics. You learn about the great figures … I view it as American history. I don’t view it as separate history. You know, we have history a lot of different shapes and sizes, people that have participated to make the country great, people that have stood up when it wasn’t easy and they all deserve to be taught, but abolishing prisons being taught to high school kids as if that’s somehow a fact? No. That’s not appropriate.
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