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REWRITING HISTORY: Ron DeSantis and his latest attack on the Florida educational system

REWRITING HISTORY: Ron DeSantis and his latest attack on the Florida educational system

REWRITING HISTORY: Ron DeSantis and his latest attack on the Florida educational system

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has rejected the state’s implementation of an Advanced Placement African-American Studies program created by the College Board, claiming it violates Florida law.

The Board denies the governor’s claims that the APAAS curriculum violates Florida’s Stop WOKE Act, advocates CRT, or elevates one political ideology over another.

But that didn’t keep the DeSantis administration from refusing to allow the pilot program.

According to The National Review, the College Board received a letter from the Republican-led administration on January 12th.

“As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Articulation wrote.

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion.”

College Board kept the curriculum, and the names of the nearly five dozen schools the course is being tested in a secret.

Signed into law by Gov. DeSantis last year, the Stop WOKE Act bars any actions to weaponize education.

“State lawmakers amended the law to ensure no classroom instruction and curriculum would be used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view that was inconsistent with recent ‘anti-woke’ laws and state academic standards,” The Palm Beach Post reported.

However, when it comes to the Florida GOP, that includes any discussions about the state’s long, complicated  – and at times violent – racial history.

The so-called “Individual Freedom” law, is in contradiction to a Florida statute currently on the books that encourages open and honest classroom engagement in regard to bigotry, prejudice, and systemic racism.

Florida Statute 1003.42 encourages ” … students to develop an understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping on individual freedoms, examine what it means to be a responsible and respectful person, for the purpose of encouraging tolerance of diversity in a pluralistic society and for nurturing and protecting democratic values and institutions.”

“Instructional personnel may facilitate discussions and use curricula to address, in an age-appropriate manner, how the individual freedoms of persons have been infringed by slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, and racial discrimination, as well as topics relating to the enactment and enforcement of laws resulting in racial oppression, racial segregation, and racial discrimination and how recognition of these freedoms has overturned these unjust laws.”

Historic events like the Rosewood massacre – which occurred a century ago on Jan. 1st – the Tallahassee bus boycott, and the bombing of the home of civil rights advocates Harry T. and Harriett Moore on Christmas Day 1951, have been left out of acknowledgment, commemoration, and conversation by the DeSantis administration.

As 2024 fast approaches, Gov. DeSantis is ramping up on authoritarian rhetoric and actions, hiding fascist legislation behind semantics. Words like “freedom, liberty, and parental choice,” are little more than Christofascist dog whistles.

The College Board – which runs the SAT college entry exam and high school Advanced Placement programs – has never had its suggested curriculum rejected by the state before.

DeSantis’ actions set a dangerous precedent at a time when history is being erased and whitewashed around the country – when diversity, inclusion, and representation are more important than ever.

Original reporting by Stanley Kurtz at The National Review, and by The Palm Beach Post.

Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick

 

Ty Ross
News journalist for Occupy Democrats.

© 2022 Occupy Democrats. All Rights Reserved.

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