The latest attempt to smear Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as a transphobic bigot is coming from a so-called non-profit group called the College Board, which has claimed that high school students will no longer be able to take the AP (Advanced Placement) psychology test because the course includes discussions on LGBTQ issues.
You may not have heard of the College Board, but you certainly know their work.
The organization oversees SATs, AP exams, and PSATs and rakes in more than a billion dollars a year “in profits from managing exams,” according to a 2021 report in the Daily Trojan.
With its hands on the crux of college admissions exams, the group carries some clout.
In October 2022, Vice President Kamala Harris appointed one of the organization’s trustees, Elmer J. Guy Sr., to the National Board for Education Sciences.
In Florida, the College Board has withdrawn its AP psychology exam after it refused to sign an “assurance document” that the course complies with the state’s rules and laws, claiming Gov. DeSantis’s Parental Rights in Education Act — known by liberals as the “Don’t Say Gay” law — “effectively banned” the high school course.
Read our full statement on AP Psychology and Florida: https://t.co/Y0NRrNCwBy pic.twitter.com/1Th1BhGTs8
— College Board (@CollegeBoard) August 3, 2023
“We are sad to have learned that today the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law,” the College Board said in a statement posted on Thursday to X. “The state has said districts are free to teach AP Psychology only if it excludes any mention of these essential topics.”
“As we shared in June, we cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness,” the group continued. “Our policy remains unchanged. Any course that censors required course content cannot be labeled ‘AP’ or ‘Advanced Placement,’ and the ‘AP Psychology’ designation cannot be utilized on student transcripts.”
Predictably, the left seized on the opportunity to slam GOP presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis.
“Sadly, it’s all part of the DeSantis playbook of eroding rights, censoring those he disagrees with and undermining access to knowledge,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers — one of the nation’s biggest teachers’ union — according to the Daily Mail.
“Just this year, countless educators have been forced to remove or cover up their classroom libraries under threat of sanctions and jail, countless students have lost out because the governor ended AP African American studies, and now this assault on AP psychology,” she continued. “It’s an unconscionable but far-from-surprising move from an extremist and increasingly unpopular leader who is fast becoming both a national pariah and a global embarrassment.”
But according to Florida’s Department of Education, the College Board is “playing games.”
One week before school starts up again, the department argued, the College Board is trying to force school districts to “prevent students from taking the AP Psychology Course.”
“The Department didn’t ‘ban’ the course. The course remains listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year,” a department spokesperson told CBS News. “We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly. The other advanced course providers (including the International Baccalaureate program) had no issue providing the college credit psychology course.”
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Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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