Dozens of far-left organizations are demanding the resignation of College Board CEO David Coleman after the organization modified its AP African American Studies course when the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) rejected its inclusion of woke topics and blatantly leftist talking points.
Over 30 far-left organizations signed the National Black Justice Coalition letter demanding Coleman’s resignation and citing what they believe to be the disastrous rollout of the course. According to the letter, the rollout has been “causing pain, division, and turmoil for the community it sought to celebrate.”
“Several lies and a belated campaign to tell the truth from your President, David Coleman, regarding the pilot and revision process of the curriculum played a role in the growing mistrust the public, students, and educators have for your institution and the content of the class,” it states, expressing outrage that the College Board reportedly coordinated with Florida officials on several occasions prior to releasing revisions of the woke course.
According to the original syllabus, the original course included sections on “Black Queer Studies,” cultural appropriation, reparations and more, leading the FDOE to conclude that the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
The leftist organizations, however, view the removal of such woke topics as problematic.
“The meetings with Florida officials were about removing the depth, breadth, and recency of Black history in its study of Black life – including the removal of Black feminist and queer life and history, the movements for reparations and Black lives, and more,” the letter reads, concluding that the current College Board leadership “lacks the courage and character to advocate for students and academic freedom; and against the DeSantis regime’s book banning, censorship, and surveillance agenda.”
It continues:
Without the courageous leadership needed for this moment in history, the College Board will continue to be a pawn in the political games of governors and other elected officials advancing a white nationalist, anti-democratic agenda. The undersigned believe that the decision to make learning about fundamental parts of Black studies optional due to partisan political pressure is a tremendous error on the part of the College Board and warrants the immediate removal or resignation of David Coleman, the President of your institution.
Signers include the National Black Justice Coalition, Human Rights Campaign, Equality Florida, GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality, Teachers College, Columbia University, UltraViolet, Family Equality, Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance, National Center for Transgender Equality, and more.
Indeed, the College Board agreed to revise the course after criticisms from the FDOE. According to the AP, “In the new framework, topics including Black Lives Matter and queer life are not part of the exam.”
“They are included only on a list of sample project topics that states and school systems can choose from for assignments,” the report added.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has continued to defend his administration’s decision to reject what was originally presented.
COLLEGE BOARD: Gov. Ron Desantis (R-FL) fires back at the College Board over criticisms of his opposition to its AP African-American Studies course, calling the course infused "neo-Marxism" & complaining, "Why is it someone always has to try to jam their agenda down our throats?" pic.twitter.com/vvDIW38XZL
— Forbes (@Forbes) February 13, 2023
“In the state of Florida, education standards … require teaching black history — all the important things, that’s part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis said last month.
“The issue is we have guideline and standards in Florida. We want education, not indoctrination. If you fall on the side of indoctrination, we’re gonna decline. If it’s education, then we will do,” he continued, highlighting some of the more radical inclusions of the original course.
“What’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory?” he asked. “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 added:
And 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 and you know, 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,” he said. “That’s not appropriate.”
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