Few political leaders today are as adept at sending fragile leftists (who begrudgingly call America home) spiraling into inane screeching as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. And he might be the most successful culture warrior Republicans and conservatives have had on their bench in recent memory. From taking on Disney to protecting students and promoting individual freedom, his ideological and political opponents have not shown themselves equipped to defeat or even respond well.
This week, DeSantis notched another big victory, this one against woke and biased education — but with far-reaching impacts beyond the borders of his free state of Florida.
As he's done before, DeSantis seems to have set something of a snare for his political foes, hoping to bait them into defending the indefensible simply because to do otherwise would mean agreeing with DeSantis' concerns. That is, it was a brilliant plan that would, independent of the left's reaction, promote academic freedom and actual critical thinking for Florida's students.
This latest kerfuffle came about as a result of the College Board's decision to rework its Advanced Placement curriculum for African American Studies. Like the rest of mainstream educational developments of late, the redevelopment of the course reportedly intended to include woke, unbalanced lessons to integrate things such as the debunked 1619 Project and other Critical Race Theory principles, as well as things like "Marxist approaches to race."
"Reportedly," because the true contents of the curriculum were kept secret by College Board and most of the information about the course came from public comments by those developing the outline for the reworked African American Studies program.
Guy summarized some of the writings from those who got their hands on the curriculum, and those reviews found that it "proselytizes for a socialist transformation of the United States" and attempts to "promote leftist radicalism, with virtually no readings providing even a classically liberal point of view, much less some form of conservatism."
So, when the College Board began the pilot for the new course while keeping most of its contents secret, the DeSantis administration slapped it down. "As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law," the Florida Department of Education said, alluding to Florida's Stop WOKE Act that protects students from the racist tenets of CRT. Florida left the door open to future work with the College Board if it would "come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content."
When Guy eventually obtained the syllabus for the APAAS that included "subjects such as 'intersectionality and activism,' 'black queer studies,' 'postracial racism,' prison 'abolition,' and the 'reparations movement,'" it became even more understandable why the DeSantis administration had concerns.
But the reasonable stance from DeSantis — based on state law and concerns that College Board was not being transparent with the curriculum — didn't mean that the left tempered their out-of-control emotions. They claimed DeSantis was banning African American studies completely, said it was proof of racism, compared him to book-burners, and pointed to DeSantis' alleged anti-intellectualism. Even Biden Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took the bait in a briefing and called DeSantis' position "incomprehensible."
Well, Democrats and leftist academics may have gotten a bit ahead of themselves (again) because it turns out the College Board caved, at least in some areas of the curriculum. On Wednesday morning, College Board announced its new APAAS course would remove Critical Race Theory, queer theory, and black feminism, as Townhall reported. The course will, as an addition, include a research project idea centered on black conservatism.
The leftists who had been frothing about DeSantis' position on the initial biased curriculum, as they usually do when they realize they've lost a battle, did not take the news well. They, also as usual, immediately race-baited and attacked College Board and DeSantis for ending the study of black history on the first day of black history month.
The backlash against the College Board was swift, even though its president, David Coleman, announced the changes while denying political leaders had anything to do with them. That wasn't enough on Wednesday and won't be enough to mollify the leftists whose existence seems to depend on sustained outrage.
So the leftists will continue to screech while DeSantis picks up another success in his administration's work to protect Florida from those who wish to force their leftist principles on its rising generation.
In doing so, DeSantis not only notched an apparent victory against woke academics and secured better educational offerings for Florida students, but he also gave other state executives another playbook to follow as they seek to take control of education away from inane coastal leftists and ensure it fits what parents expect and students need.
