Illinois governor slams DeSantis’s decision to block AP course

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has warned the College Board that his state will reject a revised Advanced Placement African American studies course “designed to appease extremists like the Florida Governor and his allies.”

“Illinois expects any AP course offered on African American Studies to include a factual accounting of history, including the role played by black queer Americans,” Pritzker’s said in a letter to David Coleman, CEO of the College Board. 

“Illinois will closely examine the official coursework to ensure it includes all necessary history, starting with this nation’s foundation built on slavery, the Civil War where this nation reckoned with that history and the decades of rebuilding and efforts of black Americans to continue their fight for equality and equity to this day.”

Pritzker’s letter comes after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refused to allow the course to be run in Florida schools, in part because of its section on queer Black studies. 

DeSantis’s administration sent a letter to the College Board on Jan. 12 rejecting the new AP African American Studies course, stating “the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

“What’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” DeSantis said at a press conference on Monday. “Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids. And so when you look to see they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that’s a political agenda. And so we’re on — that’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards. We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”

Three Florida high school students announced on Wednesday they are prepared to file a lawsuit against DeSantis if he stands by his decision to keep the course out of schools. 

The College Board introduced the interdisciplinary course as a pilot program in 60 schools across the country for the 2022-2023 school year after more than a decade of work with colleges, universities and secondary schools to develop it.

But The College Board told The Hill on Wednesday that it will release an updated version as part of ongoing revisions to the program, and DeSantis’s office took credit for the changes. 

Pritzker’s letter said he was “extremely troubled” by the news that DeSantis was pressuring College Board for changes “in order to fit Florida’s racist and homophobic laws.”

Florida law limits how race can be taught or discussed in classrooms and workplaces, and prohibits public primary school teachers from engaging in classroom instruction related to sexual orientation and gender identity.

But Pritzker said the course is vital for students who have endured racism on “a personal and systemic level” even before they reached high school.

“For some, a course such as this may be one of the first times they see their own faces and experiences reflected back to them on the page,” said Pritzker. “They deserve the opportunity, alongside their classmates, to learn the honest and accurate history of the nation they live in now.”

“One Governor should not have the power to dictate the facts of U.S. history,” he said.