Education

Gov. Ron DeSantis Says Florida May Reevaluate Its Relationship With College Board

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that the state legislature could reconsider its relationship with the College Board corporation.

During a press conference, DeSantis brought up that the College Board isn’t an elected body, and although it provides AP courses there are perhaps other vendors that the state could use.

“This College Board, like nobody elected them to anything. They’re just kinda there and they’re providing service. And so you can either utilize those services or not and so they’ve provided these AP courses for a long time. But you know, there are probably some other vendors who may be able to do that job as good or maybe even a lot better,” DeSantis said, CBS 12 reported.

“This really is junk. Why don’t we just do and teach the things that matter?” DeSantis added. “Why is it always someone has to try to jam their agenda down our throats?”

DeSantis and the College Board got into a high profile dispute over content included in the AP African American studies course. Several topics in the course violated the state’s laws prohibiting critical race theory in K-12 education. After DeSantis blocked the pilot course from being offered in Florida schools, the College Board revised the course to eliminate subject matter that violated Florida state law. (RELATED: Florida Rejects AP African American Studies Course That Contained Section On ‘Queer Theory’)

The College Board released a statement Saturday sharply criticizing the DeSantis Administration, accusing them of slander.

“We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent comments, that African American Studies ‘lacks educational value,'” the statement reads. “Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.”

The College Board also rejected the Florida Department of Education’s claim that they had been in continuous contact regarding the shaping of the course.

“Our exchanges with them are actually transactional emails about the filing of paperwork to request a pilot course code and our response to their request that the College Board explain why we believe the course is not in violation of Florida laws,” the College Board said.

The College Board has a substantial presence in Florida. According to data provided by the College Board, 366,150 AP exams were taken in the state in 2021.