The College Board fired back at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) in a statement Saturday, calling out their alleged "slander" against the framework of a proposed AP African-American Studies course that they claimed violated the state's Stop WOKE Act signed into law last year.
"There is always debate about the content of a new AP course. That is good and healthy; these courses matter. But the dialogue surrounding AP African American Studies has moved from healthy debate to misinformation," the College Board's communications wrote, adding later, "We need to clear the air and set the record straight."
"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.’ Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field," the statement said.
The College Board went on to claim that controversial and allegedly divisive topics like mass incarceration and the Black Lives Matter movement – two elements which led Florida officials to bar the proposed course from the state's high schools – were "optional topics" in the pilot course.
The board also reiterated it had not been in "frequent dialogue" with the state as previously indicated.
"This is a false and politically motivated charge," the board wrote. "Our exchanges with them are actually transactional emails about the filing of paperwork to request a pilot course code and our response to their request that the College Board explain why we believe the course is not in violation of Florida laws."
The board said the letter received from the Florida Department of Education contained "no explanation" as to why the course was rejected and invited the board to call with any questions.
"We made those calls, as we would to any state that says they have unstated concerns about an AP course. These phone calls with FDOE were absent of substance, despite the audacious claims of influence FDOE is now making," they added.
The College Board admitted to making mistakes in the course's rollout, but added that those mistakes have been "exploited" in "Florida's effort to engineer a political win."
Controversy over the College Board's proposed AP African-American Studies course framework comes after DeSantis slammed its content as "historically inaccurate," pointing to material rooted in critical race theory and "Black Queer Studies."
COLLEGE BOARD TO REVISE AP AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES FRAMEWORK AFTER FLORIDA REJECTS COURSE
"This course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda," he said of the course last month.
The College Board announced revisions to the framework for the course last month, but never attributed these revisions to discontent from Florida's Education Department or from DeSantis and his administration.
The College Board accused Florida of "attempting to claim a political victory by taking credit retroactively for changes we ourselves made but that they never suggested to us," in the Saturday statement and reiterated its commitment to the field of African-American studies in light of the ongoing dustup.
