Here is DeSantis’ asshole move o’ the day. (It’s like he has a schedule…)
As news zipped across Florida that the governor had threatened to eliminate Advanced Placement classes, some parents discussed moving out of the state to protect their children’s chances at a good education. And high school students, some of them enrolled in AP classes, tried to fathom what was happening.
Prisha Sherdiwala, a 17-year-old junior in Palm Harbor, Fla., is taking three AP classes this year to boost her GPA and to make her more attractive to college admissions officers, a strategy drummed into her by her school counselor. But Sherdiwala has also grown to love the strenuous environment of her AP English Literature, Chemistry and Calculus courses, despite the hours of homework each week.
“In the APs, I am surrounded by other people who enjoy the rigor,” Sherdiwala said. “And I tend to have teachers that are really well-versed in what they are teaching.” What will happen, she wants to know, if all of that goes away her senior year?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) warned Tuesday that he may withdraw state support for AP programs, intensifying his ongoing conflict with the College Board, which oversees all AP classes, including an African American studies course the DeSantis administration says leans left and lacks “educational value.” Earlier this month, the College Board said it was revising the course to eliminate lessons on Black Lives Matter and the reparations movement.
After the College Board said Florida’s criticism of its AP African American studies course amounted to “slander,” DeSantis suggested his state might drop AP classes from its schools. Instead, he said, schools could expand alternatives, such as the International Baccalaureate and Cambridge Assessment programs, which, like AP classes, permit students to earn college credit by passing an exam.
It remains unclear what the governor can do to nix AP classes, although he may be able to halt Florida’s practice of paying AP exam fees ($97 per test) for public school students. If DeSantis follows through, hundreds of thousands of students will be affected: Over 199,000 Florida students took AP classes in the 2020-2021 school year, The Washington Post has reported, and roughly 366,000 AP tests were administered statewide at the end of that year.
The stakes are high for Florida families, both financially and in terms of their children’s competitiveness during college applications. Scores of three and above on the five-point AP test scale help students qualify for college credit, lowering the price of a bachelor’s degree. Moreover, AP courses are seen by college admissions officers as a marker of ambition, intelligence and industriousness.
“Parents in this state need to be paying attention to this threat,” said Katie Hathaway, a Jacksonville parent whose son will enter high school next year. “I want him and every student in the state to have access to these valuable courses with college credit opportunities.”
The suggestion from DeSantis has prompted strong backlash from national education leaders. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that DeSantis is placing his political aspirations ahead of students. DeSantis, a possible contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has won acclaim in conservative circles for executive actions and legislation limiting discussion of race and gender in schools.
“AP classes have become an avenue for American students to get a head start to college,” Weingarten said. “The alternatives floated by DeSantis, the International Baccalaureate and Cambridge Assessment, don’t provide the same breadth of course offerings and are not widely accepted by other colleges and universities.”
He’s chasing as many teachers out of the profession as he can, destroying elementary schools by banning books, demeaning smart and sensitive high school kids and taking over public colleges to replace them with Christian nationalist leadership. It’s weird that an Ivy League education lawyer would be so hostile to education but then he is a man without a soul so he cares about nothing but himself.
This is going to take a more systematic response from parents. There’s little evidence so far that that’s happening.