Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has ordered the state’s Education Secretary to review an “AP African American Studies” course, becoming the third state to do so.
The state will now join Arkansas, Mississippi, and North Dakota in reviews of the course material after it was banned in Florida.
“After numerous reports about draft course content, the governor asked the Education Secretariat to review the College Board’s proposed AP African American Studies course as it pertains to Executive Order 1,” a spokesperson for Governor Youngkin said in a statement obtained by Fox News.
The course originally contained lessons on Black Lives Matter and suggested readings from Kimberlé Crenshaw, the author of “Critical Race theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement,” but was revised and they were removed on February 1.
Virginia prohibits lessons that “promote discriminatory and divisive concepts, such as critical race theory, as directed by Executive Order One.”
Executive Order 1, signed by Gov. Youngkin on his first day in office, bans any “inherently divisive content, including critical race theory.”
Florida rejected the course after a review found that it violated the state law prohibiting CRT from being taught in K-12 classrooms.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis explained the reason for the ban during a press conference in January.
WATCH: DeSantis explains rejection of African American Studies course
“It’s not fair to say that somehow abolishing prisons is somehow linked to black experience […] I think they want law and order […] I view it as American history, I don’t view it as black history.” pic.twitter.com/RQuRwBNv20
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) January 23, 2023
“They’re advocating things like abolishing prisons. Now that’s a radical political position,” DeSantis told reporters. “You’re free to take that in your own life, I don’t think very many people think that would actually work, but how is that being taught as fact?”
“It’s not fair to say that somehow abolishing prisons is linked to black experiences, that that’s what black people want,” the governor continued.”I think they want law and order, just like anybody else wants law and order. So that is more ideology being used under the guise of history, and we want to do history.”
DeSantis’ office said they are ensuring Florida schools “utilize accurate, historical curriculum.”
“That’s what our standards for black history are: it’s just cut-and-dry history. You learn all the basics, you learn about the great figures,” DeSantis said. “I view it as American history. I don’t view it as separate history.”
DeSantis’ office previously explained that classrooms in the state are places for “education, not indoctrination.”
“The Florida Department of Education has rejected the College Board’s AP African American Studies course because it lacks educational value and historical accuracy,” Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ press secretary, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “As submitted, the course is a vehicle for a political agenda and leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material, which we will not allow. As Governor DeSantis has stated, our classrooms will be a place for education, not indoctrination.”
The Daily Caller obtained the course syllabus and reported, “Unit 4 includes a section titled ‘African American Studies: Movements and Methods,’ under which is a lesson on ‘Black Queer Studies.’ The section teaches students about ‘the concept of the queer of color critique, grounded in Black feminism and intersectionality, as a Black studies lens that shifts sexuality studies toward racial analysis,’ according to the syllabus.”
