Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks throughout a press convention on Jan. 26, 2023, in Miami.

Marta Lavandier/AP

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Marta Lavandier/AP

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks throughout a press convention on Jan. 26, 2023, in Miami.

Marta Lavandier/AP

The College Board is hitting again at prime officers in Florida over the state’s ban on a brand new AP African American Studies course that is being piloted in a number of states.

In a prolonged statement released Saturday, the nationwide schooling nonprofit mentioned it ought to have extra shortly addressed claims by Florida’s Department of Education that the course was indoctrinating college students and lacked academic worth, which the College Board known as “slander.”

The group additionally mentioned that Florida’s private and non-private objections had no bearing on adjustments the College Board made to the final curriculum of the course, which it launched earlier this month.

“Florida is attempting to claim a political victory by taking credit retroactively for changes we ourselves made but that they never suggested to us,” the College Board mentioned in a press release.

“While it has been claimed that the College Board was in frequent dialogue with Florida about the content of AP African American Studies, this is a false and politically motivated charge,” the assertion mentioned. “We had no negotiations about the content of this course with Florida or any other state, nor did we receive any requests, suggestions, or feedback.”

NPR has reached out to the Florida Department of Education and the governor’s workplace for remark and can replace once they reply.

The African American Studies course is the newest addition to the College Board’s Advanced Placement, or AP, program, which permits highschool college students to take lessons for school credit score.

In January, the Florida Department of Education rejected the new course, with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s press secretary Bryan Griffin saying it was a “vehicle for a political agenda.”

Florida’s Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. called the course “woke indoctrination masquerading as education.”

DeSantis has signed various legal guidelines not too long ago that limit what will be taught in Florida colleges. One such regulation – formally known as the “Parental Rights in Education” regulation however dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” invoice by critics – bans classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity beneath sure circumstances. Another regulation, often called the Stop W.O.Ok.E. Act, limits how issues of race will be taught.

The College Board now says it ought to have come out extra strongly towards the criticisms by Florida officers sooner and that its “failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.”

The group clarified that the course framework is barely a top level view, and sure controversial matters resembling Black Lives Matter had been all the time elective within the pilot program and never required to be taught.

The College Board reserved a few of its strongest language for Florida officers themselves, who it mentioned made “audacious claims” about getting the College Board to alter the course curriculum however in actuality provided no concrete strategies to the group when given a number of possibilities throughout months of correspondence.

“We have made the mistake of treating FDOE with the courtesy we always accord to an education agency, but they have instead exploited this courtesy for their political agenda,” the group mentioned in its assertion. “After each written or verbal exchange with them, as a matter of professional protocol, we politely thanked them for their feedback and contributions, although they had given none.”