It remains odd for figures like Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis to hold themselves out as ostensible beacons of freedom or whatever, considering their actual policy record.
DeSantis and his team resisted even allowing high school students in Florida to take what could be a moderately challenging AP course from the College Board that draws from a clearly established and growing field of scholarship. That course focuses on what was termed African American Studies, and among the specific topics of potential discussion that DeSantis challenged was talk of LGBTQ+ identities within Black communities. You can’t just pretend such individuals didn’t exist until recently. In other words, the commitment to ignorance from the governor’s team once again accompanies targeting that has basically nothing to found itself upon in the real world other than bigotry. It’s just racism. President Joe Biden remarked on the situation.
“I think every kid, in every zip code, in every state should have access to every education opportunity possible,” a post on the president’s official Twitter account said this week. “I guess, for some, that isn’t the consensus view.” As controversy has grown, DeSantis, who may eventually run for president, has even talked about paring back Florida’s usage of Advanced Placement (AP) courses, predictably resisting those who have protested his move in Florida and elsewhere. Besides demonstrators who recently assembled in Tallahassee, which is Florida’s capital, protesters also gathered in Philadelphia when DeSantis recently traveled there to receive an award from a longstanding private organization. Multiple local officials joined the push-back against the governor’s visit. In Tallahassee, those who participated in protests included civil rights leader Al Sharpton. Demonstrators held a protest march and press conference outlining their serious concerns.
The College Board, meanwhile, recently offered a memorable rebuttal to some of the DeSantis team’s complaints, including explaining some of the ridiculous ineptitude displayed on a call between the organization and someone from the Florida Department of Education. That state staff member asked the College Board for a definition of intersectionality — which they could, you know, look up online — and whether the contested course would promote so-called Black Panther thinking. Obviously, the College Board isn’t promoting the ideology of the Black Panther Party to high school students, since conservative complaints don’t make GOP fairy tales into reality.
I think every kid, in every zip code, in every state should have access to every education opportunity possible.
I guess, for some, that isn’t the consensus view. https://t.co/d1FAeWwKv1
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 17, 2023
