West Cook News

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is demanding answers from the College Board about its reasoning for changing the final framework of a new advanced placement course in African American studies after it had been publicly criticized by Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Feb. 2.

The College Board first released a pilot course in August in 60 high schools and later spent months refining the course based on feedback from college professors and high school teachers before releasing the final framework earlier this month on the first day of Black History Month, according to Chicago Business.

“Although we are pleased to see many core ideas remain in place, there are still significant issues with the way the College Board has chosen to present this curriculum,” Pritzker said in an email statement. 

Alternatively, there are political figures who oppose the curriculum.

DeSantis has been one of the loudest critics of critical race theory, specifically objecting to the teaching of concepts like “intersectionality”—the overlapping of categories such as race, class, gender and other sources of discrimination to create unique dynamics and effects – as well as black queer studies, the Black Lives Matter movement and the reparations movement, according to Chicago Business.

Soon after the particulars of the course were made public, conservatives attacked the planned curriculum for promoting critical race theory—the idea that racial disparities are the result of systemic prejudices that are woven into the fabric of institutions.

However, Pritzker insists that not including specific aspects in the curriculum is a tactic to appease certain groups. 

"Refusing to name the components of black history that Gov. DeSantis is most afraid of like intersectionality, feminism and queer black life, but still including them in the curriculum can be viewed as a weak attempt to please extremists,” Pritzker said in an email statement.