Students in Arkansas public schools will no longer be able to take an Advanced Placement African American studies course to receive college credit, as they do with other AP courses.
The move marks conservatives’ latest attempt to marginalize and literally discredit the AP course, which has come under fire in states — like Florida — where conservatives have led a push to whitewash lesson plans about Black history and social inequality.
As the Arkansas Times reported:
Word came Friday from distraught educators that a new Advanced Placement course on African American history was suddenly on the chopping block, just two days before the first bell of the school year was set to ring in Arkansas high schools planning to offer the class. An official from the Arkansas Department of Education reportedly alerted high school teachers by phone on Friday that the class would not be recognized for course credit by the state in the 2023-24 school year. And unlike with every other AP class on offer, the state would not cover the $90 cost of an end-of-year test that gives students the opportunity to qualify for college course credit.
The College Board, the company that administers the Advanced Placement courses, buckled under pressure from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration earlier this year when it removed references to Black Lives Matter and queer Black people from its course on African American studies.
It appears that conservatives in Arkansas might ask for similar concessions — and potentially more.








