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.
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