DeSantis Threatens to Ban All AP Courses

There appears to be no limit to how far - and how low - Ron DeSantis will go in his effort to prostitute himself to the evangelical/Christofascist and white supremist base of the Republican Party whic controls to much of the party's agenda and dominates primary voters in Republican primaries.  DeSantis' actions are also motivated by the reality that today's GOP needs an ignorant population that is too poorly educated to graps that politicians like DeSantis are lying to them and who will fall for the GOP's "god, guns, and gays" propaganda.   The looming question becomes one of at what point does DeSantis alienate the majority of voters who determine general elections.  With educated suburban voters increasingly abandoning the lie and ignorance based GOP, perhaps DeSantis has calculated that this element of the voting public is already lost to him, but his threat to ban all advanced placement courses in his snit with the College Board organization  - which has slamed DeSantis for his efforts to censor courses and school curriculums - could awaken indifferent parents who suddenly could be enraged if little Johnny or Suzie's college admission prospects wete to be tossed down the toilet thanks to DeSantis' actions.  A piece in the Tampa BayTimes looks at DeSantis' latest threat to dumb down Florida students.  Here are excerpts:

Tens of thousands of Florida high school students take Advanced Placement courses every year to have a competitive edge heading into college.

Now, Gov. Ron DeSantis says he wants to reevaluate the state’s relationship with the College Board, the private company that administers those courses and the SAT exam. And that has some high school students worried.

“I don’t see how I could have gotten ahead without them,” said Eli Rhoads, a senior at Pasco County’s Mitchell High School, who said AP courses helped him get a full scholarship to the University of Alabama. “You almost have to have these courses to stand out.”

DeSantis has not made clear exactly what he plans to change, but his remarks come after the College Board on Saturday accused his administration of playing politics when it rejected its new Advanced Placement African American studies course over allegations that it “lacks educational value.”

“This College Board, like, nobody elected them to anything,” DeSantis said at a news conference Monday in Naples. “They are just kind of there, and they provide a service, and so you can either utilize those services or not.”

While DeSantis acknowledged the College Board’s long-standing presence in the state, he said “there are probably other vendors who may be able to do that job as good or maybe even a lot better.”

A College Board spokesperson said the organization had no comment on the governor’s statements.

The dispute between the College Board and DeSantis is indicative of the Republican governor’s take-no-prisoners brand of politics. The board joins Walt Disney World in the ranks of companies the governor has wrangled with for not adopting conservative stances on education matters.

“This is about the governor trying to cancel the companies he doesn’t like,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando. “He’s screaming and complaining about ideology being pushed onto our schools, yet what he continues to do is push his ideology onto us.”

As with Disney, Florida has long had a strong relationship with the College Board.

The state pays for students to take Advanced Placement exams and provides teachers a bonus of $50 for each student they teach in an AP course who earns a test score of 3 or higher.

College Board offers eight AP courses in languages and culture; seven science-based courses, such as physics and biology; six math and computer science courses, including calculus; nine history and social science courses; two English courses and three arts courses.

In 2021, nearly 200,000 Florida teens sat for more than 366,000 tests, for which they can earn college credit. It had the fifth-highest rate of tests taken per 1,000 students in the nation.

The College Board also administers the SAT exam, which students may use to help them complete graduation testing requirements, earn entry into universities and become eligible for Bright Futures scholarships.

Stella Tucker, another Mitchell High senior, will have taken 18 AP courses by the time she graduates in the top 10 of her class this spring. She said she finds the courses challenging academically — more reliably so than dual enrollment — while also preparing her for college.

She predicted a strong backlash from Florida teens if the governor and Legislature were to propose scaling back or eliminating AP courses. . . . “I think that would really put the students of Florida at a disadvantage,” Tucker said.

In this latest round, DeSantis’ dispute with the College Board is over an AP African American studies course that included the study of Black scholars and authors on topics like Black Lives Matter, Black queer studies and reparations.

On Saturday, the College Board said it is proud of its “historic” course, which has been crafted by renowned scholars. . . . . “The vitriol aimed at these scholars is repulsive and must stop,” the group wrote.

DeSantis, who is eyeing a presidential run in 2024, has drawn national attention for his stance against what he calls “woke indoctrination” in schools, a stance that in the last two years has led to restricting certain aspects of race-related lessons.

DeSantis is dangerous and must be stopped.