Ron DeSantis floats cutting Florida’s College Board ties

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis questioned the College Board’s influence over university admissions and high school Advanced Placement courses Monday after clashing with the organization over a black history class earlier this month.

“This College Board, nobody elected them to anything,” DeSantis said at an unrelated news conference. “They are just kind of there and they provide a service, and so you can either utilize those services or not.”

In addition to overseeing the SATs, the organization also administers AP classes that allow students to earn college credits while still in high school.

“There are probably some other vendors who may be able to do that job as good or maybe even a lot better,” the governor added, vowing to examine Florida public schools’ reliance on the College Board.

The GOP grassroots favorite initially clashed with the organization after Florida education officials rejected a proposed AP class on black history for use in its schools.

DeSantis argued that the course was being used as a vessel for the promotion of progressive agendas, and asserted again Monday that that it was permeated by “neo-Marxism.”

The governor insisted again that units on queer theory and prison abolition did not belong in an objective examination of African-American history.

“In Florida, we do education, not indoctrination,” DeSantis said. “That runs afoul of our standards. Many people agree with that in other states. We were just the only ones to stand up and do it.”

“The College Board was the one that, in a black studies course, put queer theory in, not us,” he added. “They did that. They were the ones that put in intersectionality, they put in other types of neo-Marxism into the proposed syllabus.”

He also argued that the class did not represent the full spectrum of African-American political thought on flashpoint cultural issues.

“People were saying, ‘You know, this really is junk,’” DeSantis said. “Why don’t we just do and teach the things that matter? Why is it always [that] someone has to try to jam their agenda down out throat?”

The class, Florida education officials said, violated the state’s “Stop WOKE Act” that prohibits subject matter like Critical Race Theory.

But critics ripped the the course’s rejection, arguing that DeSantis was restricting academic inquiry and singling out black history for special scrutiny.

The College Board modified the class to address a number of the concerns DeSantis raised, leading some to critique the organization for not retaining the original content.

The organization again addressed the controversy over the weekend in an open letter, that attempted to walk back its initial concession.

“We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent comments, that African American Studies ‘lacks educational value.,’” the letter read. “Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.”

Florida officials have emphasized that the teaching of black history is legally required in public schools.

DeSantis, who many believe is positioning himself for a White House run in 2024, said he wasn’t concerned by the potential backlash that would come with challenging the course.

“I”m so sick of people not doing what’s right because they are worried that people are going to call them names,” he said. “We’re doing what’s right here.”