A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis is speaking out against the concept of “social justice” in the classroom while defending the state’s ban of an Advanced Placement course.
The DeSantis administration said no to a College Board pilot course that would have allowed students to get college credit in African-American Studies if they passed the AP test, and he said why on the friendly Fox News Channel’s “Unfiltered with Dan Bongino” Saturday night.
“Higher education, though, we believe in Florida it’s about academic excellence and the pursuit of truth,” DeSantis said. “We don’t believe higher education should be for ‘social justice’ or to impose an ideology on students. And so that’s a different approach than most colleges right now in our country.”
“I think it’s the approach that most Floridians want to see. And I think it’s the approach that’s ultimately going to be best for Florida’s students. So we’re really excited to be taking on these issues when not many people have been willing to do this. We’re doing it in Florida.”
DeSantis’ pretaped the Fox News hit, which aired while he was in Kansas City for a Jacksonville Jaguars game.
The conservative and arguably pro-DeSantis National Review Wednesday first reported that a pilot version of the AP African American Studies would not be offered, though the leak suggested a course “with lawful, historically accurate content” would be acceptable.
While DeSantis has yet to message on this ban to an in-state reporter, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, Jr., tweeted a chart Friday detailing six areas of concern in the AP course. In the part of the course that addresses compensating descendants of slavery, for example, the area of concern is that “all points and resources in this study advocate for reparations. There is no critical perspective or balancing opinion in his lesson.”
Despite the strong words on cable and the stalwart tweeting from the commissioner, Democrats decry the ban.
Sen. Bobby Powell said the ban put DeSantis’ “racial bias on full display.” Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones of Miami-Dade said Florida was trying to “tilt the scales and shut down important, much-needed discussions of race, slavery, stolen lands and undeniable history that have led to where we are as a society today.”
Miami area Rep. Christopher Benjamin wondered how the course ran “afoul of the law.” And Jacksonville Rep. Angie Nixon said the Governor was “devastating” and predicted things would only get worse.
Time will tell if Bongino invites them on to present a counter to the Governor’s point of view.
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Florida Politics’ Anne Geggis contributed reporting.
13 comments
woke and proud
January 22, 2023 at 9:21 am
Of course, Rona is all for “social injustice” and that is what he promotes. Rich, white, stupid, greedy, sexist, racist, straight, Christian, anti-abortion, aggressive, mean-spirited- those are the attributes of a Rona true believer!
Ronald Crump
January 22, 2023 at 9:23 am
Thank you AG for warming me and all my fellow leftist posting palsey walseys to what is sure to be 8 years of us leftists screaming at the sky beginning on January 6, 2024. At least we all will have our sky screaming vocal cords all warmed up and ready when that 2024 election is concluded. Keep up the articals we need the practice. Thank you Comrad.
45 Sux
January 22, 2023 at 10:15 am
Ronald Crump:
“Keep up the articals [sic] we need the practice. Thank you Comrad [sic].”
Russian Bot, Ronald Crump also needs remedial tutoring WRT spelling and grammar.
ScienceBLVR
January 22, 2023 at 10:54 am
I’ve always suspected the R behind DeSantis’s name stood for something other than Republican. Where is the “Freedom” for students to be able to select a course of interest to them that has rigorous curriculum? No one is forced to take any particular AP course, so what could the governor’s agenda possibly be? Just another shot in his overwhelming war effort against educational and academic freedom. It’s truly sickening. “Doctor, ain’t there nothing I can take, I said Doctor, to relieve this bellyache?”
Ever
January 22, 2023 at 1:30 pm
Floridas like a slave owner.
It can’t stop hurting black people lol
Bill
January 22, 2023 at 3:29 pm
“academic excellence and the pursuit of truth” – who’s truth? The arrogant bastard actually believes that everyone thinks like he does. He’s certainly in for a shock if he decides to run for a national office.
Victoria
January 22, 2023 at 3:41 pm
We need a like button. Academic excellence sounds like a high GPA, and truth is something we aspire to find through theory, research, debate, and counter-theory, not something that is memorized from a lecture. Perhaps electing a lawyer to run the state was a bad idea.
Martin Arauxo
January 22, 2023 at 7:27 pm
We don’t need anymore of these pseudo science courses that spit out a narrative that is distorted and only serves to divide the population. There is a place for African American studies, but not in the context that the left wishes to push them into.
Yep
January 24, 2023 at 5:29 pm
“There is a place for African American studies”
A white guy talking about a black man’s place what else is new lol
David Beigman
January 22, 2023 at 7:59 pm
Ron DeSantis doesn’t care about social justice or public education. He is working hard to defund public education in Florida. All Ron cares about is Ron. And he will do or say anything to get all the MAGA votes.
Katherine Johnson
January 23, 2023 at 1:45 am
Come on, we all know Ron’s got a white sheet hanging in his closet.
marcus Orealist
January 23, 2023 at 6:34 am
its not black studies,woke is white bashing.
Look at him
January 23, 2023 at 1:04 pm
Can’t you see the pain this young white man is in?
Now imagine he was in it 24 hours a day for 200 years and never got paid for it lol
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