“People across the country should be concerned that legislators and governors across the country are going to do exactly what Florida is doing,” said Senator Shevrin Jones of Florida, pictured here March 2022, said.
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“People across the country should be concerned that legislators and governors across the country are going to do exactly what Florida is doing,” said Senator Shevrin Jones of Florida, pictured here March 2022, said.
Wilfredo Lee/AP
Florida’s Department of Education has blocked a proposed Advanced Placement course that focuses on African-American studies, calling it a form of political indoctrination and a violation of state law.
The college board has been developing this class for over a decade and is currently testing it in 60 schools across the US, and plans to make it available to all schools by the 2024-2025 school year. (High school students can choose to take AP classes for college credit or place in more advanced college classes.)
The course aims to explore the experiences and contributions of African Americans through a variety of lenses, from the African diaspora to the Civil Rights movement and beyond. the academics behind its curriculum told NPR.
But Florida officials took issue with the curriculum, which Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. called “awakening the spread of education in the guise of education.” He tweeted a list of topics of interest, including intersex and activism, black gay studies, black life movements, and the restitution movement.
“As we’ve said for a long time, if the College Board decides to modify its course to comply with Florida law, we’ll be back on the table,” Diaz added.
Florida is one of many states seeks to limit how teachers can talk about topics such as race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Republican Governor Ron DeSantis – who is expected by many to be running for president in 2024 – has taken measures to promote more control school and reshaping education in his state, including signing two restrictive bills into law last year.
The “Stop WOKE” Act limits the way race is taught in the classroom and allows parents to sue teachers and school districts for violations. The Parent’s Rights in Education Act, known by critics as "Don’t Say Gay,” prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity until the end of third grade and places a limit on teaching beyond that point.
But Florida also has laws that require schools to teach Black history, said Steve Gallon III, a member of the Miami-Dade County School Board. All things considered by NPR over the weekend, pointing out the inconsistency.
Critics, including the Florida branch of NAACP and ACLUargued that the course ban was detrimental not only to black Floridians but to all children seeking a well-rounded education in the state.
And it will sound the alarm even beyond the borders of Florida, said State Senator Shevrin Jones, a Democrat representing part of Miami-Dade County. I said Morning versionby Steve Inskeep that Florida is “just a testing ground.”
“People across the country should be concerned that legislators and governors around the country are going to do exactly what Florida is doing,” he said. “And we have the capacity to raise a whole generation of Black children who would not find themselves underrepresented in their state or in their education.”
And, Jones added, the move offers a glimpse of “what the tone and duration of Ron DeSantis’s possible run for president will be.”
Here’s what makes him wonder about this decision and the impact he fears it will have on students.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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About what the class has to accomplish
This is actually a pilot program launched by the College Board that 60 other school districts have piloted. And actually teachers here in Florida have reached out to me to let me know that they’re part of the planning committee and they’re excited about what’s coming. It’s not propaganda, it’s not ideology, it’s the truth in this curriculum that Governor DeSantis made it clear, “You know, what we’re not going to teach that here in the state of Florida until you all go back and get rid of some of the awakened ideologies you’re promoting.”
On course topics related to public officials
Some of the things they’re talking about in there is talking about Black struggle, talking about the Black Lives Matter movement, talking about black weirdness… should avoid or shield away from students. These are the stories in [the] the history of America that we should embrace, and we should make sure children understand this – and especially considering the fact that we provide European history, we provide Spanish history Hey, we provide art history. All of these are part of the story … that we should not take away from our children in the classroom.
On the importance of learning different perspectives
When we look at AP courses and the levels of students who are taking these courses, they are college-level classes that [are] probe. We send our children to school to learn. Teachers aren’t in the classroom to spread the word or tell kids how they should feel based on other people and what they’ve done in history… When we started banning books by individuals like Angela Davis, when we started banning books like Letters from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, those writers wrote from their point of view, from their time, from that moment in history.
About what African-American studies classes might look like in Florida
I think you’ll start to see more communities starting to teach African American history to kids on their own. And the fact that we’re arguing that AP’s African-American studies violate state law, it just highlights how vague last year’s Stop WOKE Act and the danger it poses to the future. future of education in the state. This decision perfectly illustrates the extent to which this administration is willing to weaponize policies under the guise of individual liberties, when in fact we are taking away the rights of students and their parents.
About what parents are saying
Just yesterday, a group of parents, Black parents, made it clear that they are going to Tallahassee Wednesday because they want to be in this fight, to make sure that our history is taught, that is facts and so should students. experience every child should have and learn about the history of this country and what happened around the world.
Audio for this interview was produced by Mansee Khurana and edited by Olivia Hampton.
