Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has warned the College Board that his state will reject its Advanced Placement African American studies course if it adopts any revisions that Florida wants.
Last Week, Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected the College Board’s AP African-American Studies Course, arguing some of its material violates the state’s WOKE law, which prohibits Critical Race Theory and concepts like it from being pushed in public school classrooms.
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The department also stated that the course discussed abolishing prisons, queer theory, and “points and resources in this study advocate for reparations.”
“There is no critical perspective or balancing opinion in this lesson.”
Aside from these broad strokes, The College Board has kept the details of the curriculum of the courses clothed in secrecy. Still, after Florida rejected the course as written, it promised updates to the material course material, but not if Illinois has anything to say about it.
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The College Board has refused to admit if the changes stem from Florida’s resistance, instead citing feedback from schools where the curriculum was tested, but that hasn’t stopped the Illinois Governor from resolving to boycott the course if they implement any changes.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Pritzker sent a letter to the college board promising just that.
“In Illinois, we reject any curriculum modifications designed to appease extremists like the Florida Governor and his allies,” he said.
Pritstate would examine the updated curriculum to make sure it includes what he considers “all necessary history, starting with this nation’s foundation built on slavery, the Civil War where this nation reckoned with that history and the decades of rebuilding and efforts of black Americans to continue their fight for equality and equity to this day.”
It should be noted that AP US History already includes the teaching of slavery, the civil war, and reconstruction. Despite this, Pritzker insisted the College Board, not change due to what he called “in order to fit Florida’s racist and homophobic laws.”
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DeSantis, however, characterized the situation differently in a Monday News Conference.
“That’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them when you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
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