Kathleen J. Anderson: DeSantis’ College Board Victory Merely Scratches the Surface of Higher Education Rot

Finally, the Republican Party has begun to pay attention to Big Education and the immense damage it has caused to our country. This aspect of American life has been neglected by the Republicans for too long. We all now feel the consequences of their inaction.

A few silver linings in the COVID pandemic are that state executives have taken back the reins for education, realizing that our public schools had been selling harmful ideologies rather than educating our students. From Virginia’s Governor Glenn Youngkin, who handily won a barely purple state campaigning on education, to the boogie man of the teacher’s unions himself — Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, Big Education is on the ropes.

Governor DeSantis’ latest fight against the College Board over an Advanced Placement course pushing just about every ideology under the sun shows that if you deliver the right message and stick to your guns, you can make actual changes. Although this victory is significant, it doesn’t make a substantial enough impact to correct the education ship.

“It’s just black history! 😵‍💫”

It’s queer theory and intersectionality as well as radical feminism.

“But that’s important! 😡”

It’s not a black history.

“Ok, we’ll take the leftism out of the AP history course. But Ron DeSantis is still a racist who won’t teach black history! 😵‍💫”

— Theo Jordan (@Theo_TJ_Jordan) February 7, 2023

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What DeSantis Won

Governor DeSantis was right to pursue the College Board’s curriculum in Advanced Placement African American Studies in Florida schools. Advanced Placement (AP), which can be taken in high school, can double as high school credit or college credit. 

These were quite helpful. They helped me clear many of my prerequisites such as AP American History and AP Statistics. However, the course had many controversial topics, such as black queer studies.

“Nearly every now-omitted topic was filled with socialism, CRT, or some other radical perspective,” Stanly Kurtz, a scholar who summarized the changes Gov. DeSantis was able to get through.

Mr. Kurtz lists out the following specifics of deleted materials:

• Frantz Fanon’s glorification of violence – and its influence on black radicals in America
• Black queer studies
• CRT-based unit calling colorblindness racist
• Units plugging reparations and prison abolition

Not a whole lot of history in that syllabus, but then again, this isn’t a history class which is an issue in and of itself.

Here is Critical Race Theory advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw admitting that the goal of Woke activists is to add “Intersectionality, Queer Theory and Black Lives Matter” to school curriculums. pic.twitter.com/yyBrbzkwJ2

— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) February 7, 2023

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Whatever Happened to History?

‘Studies’ have become very popular in universities. For example, you can take classes on ‘Gender Studies,’ ‘Studies in Feminism,’ and now African American Studies.Often the thought is that these courses are kin to history classes when they have absolutely nothing to do with studying history.

For example, the National Association of Scholars’ Peter Wood and David Randall have stated that “African American Studies is not [as the name suggests to the casual reader] an interdisciplinary study of African American history and culture. It is, rather, a pseudo-discipline devoted to myth building and political activism.”

Ah, now that cuts to the real point of higher education, to mold and groom an activist generation. 

They added that “African American Studies is not an intellectual discipline. It is a political project to forward a radical conception of ‘Black Liberation,’ based upon the presumptions of identity-group politics.”

This is the theme and goal of all ‘studies’ courses, not just African American Studies. Take a gander at your college-aged kid’s courses and syllabi. 

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A Tough Job

This isn’t to say that all professors are bad or have some deep seeded agenda to rearrange the circuits of common sense and logic that course through your child’s brain. Some want to educate and help the next generation go out into the world and contribute to it in a meaningful way.

However, it’s a tough job these days, especially if you don’t fit within the ideological construct of the day. Take Erika Prater, who used to teach art at Hamline University.

She lost her job after painstakingly ensuring that her students were prepared and able to look away if needed before she showed a painting of the Prophet Muhammad. That didn’t stop an activist student from complaining and ensuring Ms. Prater doesn’t teach at Hamline again.

Or take San Jose State University anthropology professor Elizabeth Weiss who is embroiled in a lawsuit over retaliation for her opposing views on repatriation. For those not following repatriation is the concept that Native Americans can claim bones and similar items and confiscate them for burial.

As an anthropologist, she obviously would prefer to study the bones. However, her lawsuit claims that her department chair threatened to prevent her from teaching her viewpoint. Because god forbid, we challenge young adults to see conflicting arguments.

Another ridiculous story from archaeology. I teach a class called Mummies @SJSU and I have absolutely no plans to rename the class Mummified Humans. What next? Should skeletons be called skeletonized humans? https://t.co/wFJ6CaNSo1

— Elizabeth Weiss (@eweissunburied) January 27, 2023

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Keep Our Eye on the Ball

It’s easy to find examples of woke ideological madness in our public schools from kindergarten to high school. However, rooting out the truth at colleges and universities is harder.

We mustn’t lose sight of these institutions, as they are the ones who help mold the future scientists, lawmakers, creators, and caregivers of our society. There is hope, though, thanks to governors like Ron DeSantis. 

“Academia, writ large, across the country has really lost its way,” DeSantis proclaimed when revealing his new education plan.

Among other things, Gov. DeSantis calls for dismantling the Diversity Equity and Inclusion departments at universities, which I would argue should be dismantled in every industry. My all-time favorite, though, is his requirement that teachers produce quality education.

And what is it that big bad Ron DeSantis wants? All he’s asking for, and what parents across the nation are also asking for, is curriculum “focused on giving them the foundation so they can think for themselves.”

Unfortunately, it won’t be enough. A handful of state leaders will not eradicate the deep rot within Big Education. 

Perhaps we should follow in the United Kingdom’s footsteps. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced his plans to appoint a ‘Free Speech Tsar’ to investigate universities that censure academics for their views.

Until we get more lawmakers and policymakers to step up to the plate and purge our education system of ideological nonsense and protect those educators who want to educate, we are doomed to have a nation full of brainwashed, unhappy activists.

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