February 12, 2023

“Slander”: College Board Blasts DeSantis Attacks on African American Course

The group said that statements have “moved from healthy debate to misinformation.”

AP Photo/Marta Lavandier

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Late on Saturday evening, the College Board responded to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wave of attacks on education in Florida accusing the state’s Department of Education of criticizing the Advanced Placement African American studies course, and its use in the state of Florida, as a vehicle for the governor’s far-right politics.

The College Board said that it welcomes discourse around its curriculums but said that discussions about AP African American studies had “moved from healthy debate to misinformation.” The letter followed a previous one that the organization sent on Tuesday which was more tepid and less confrontational.

“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 College Board said in their new letter published on Saturday night.

DeSantis has criticized the new AP course in his continued tirades against social causes championing marginalized and historically victimized groups like LGBTQ people and racial minorities. He has called the program “woke” and said that it wouldn’t be accepted without revisions.

In their letter, College Board clarified that “[w]e had no negotiations about the content of this course with Florida or any other state, nor did we receive any requests, suggestions, or feedback,” despite Florida officials claiming credit for changes to the course. 

According to Politico, the AP course is under review for use in Florida next year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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