Dozens of civil rights groups are demanding the company that runs AP classes stand up to Ron DeSantis

Chris Panella
Wed, February 22, 2023

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisPaul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

30 civil rights groups demanded the College Board stand up to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

The letter asked for new leadership to "advocate for students and academic freedom."

The College Board is facing criticism over the rollout of the AP African American studies course.

Thirty civil rights, education equity, and gender equality groups penned a letter demanding the College Board stand up to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after the botched rollout of the company's AP African American Studies course.

The letter, signed by groups including the National Black Justice Coalition, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Center for Transgender Equality, called for the current president of the College Board to resign so that new leadership could "advocate for students and academic freedom" and stand "against the DeSantis regime's book banning, censorship, and surveillance agenda."

"The public rollout of the College Board's long-awaited Advanced Placement Black Studies Course has been a public relations and brand disaster for your institution causing pain, division, and turmoil for the community it sought to celebrate," the letter, published on the National Black Justice Coalition's website on Tuesday, said.

It added: "Several lies and a belated campaign to tell the truth from your President, David Coleman, regarding the pilot and revision process of the curriculum played a role in the growing mistrust the public, students, and educators have for your institution and the content of the class."

DeSantis initially rejected the AP African American Studies course in January. At the time, the governor said the course imposed "a political agenda." The Florida Department of Education's director of communications later said in a statement to Insider that the course featured "Critical Race Theory, Black queer studies, intersectionality, and other topics that violate our laws."

College Board then announced a new framework for the course on February 1 that reportedly removed many of the original course's topics, while making subjects like Black Lives Matter and reparations optional for students.

The company said the changes were not made because of political pressure and called out "the Florida Department of Education's slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration's subsequent comments."

But according to reporting from The New York Times, the College Board had repeated contact with DeSantis' administration to discuss the AP African American Studies' course curriculum.

A letter from a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education, first reported by The Daily Caller and subsequently to the Times, showed the College Board had been back and forth with Florida about the course's material and what Florida would approve and disapprove of.

The civil rights groups who issued an open letter on Tuesday criticized the reported correspondence and said, "New leadership is required if the College Board lacks the courage and character to advocate for students and academic freedom."

"Without the courageous leadership needed for this moment in history, the College Board will continue to be a pawn in the political games of governors and other elected officials advancing a white nationalist, anti-democratic agenda," the letter said.

Read the original article on Business Insider