GA State School Superintendent: AP African American Studies course would violate state law

After more than a week of upheaval across Georgia related to a decision to cancel the state’s funding and approval for a test-piloted African American Studies Course from the College Board, the state superintendent has shared his reasoning for the program’s rejection.

Channel 2 Action News reported Dr. Richard Woods first made his rejection of the AP Studies course public on July 23.

Eight days later, and after multiple school districts, lawmakers and members of Georgia’s education community pushed for answers and reinstatement, Woods put out a statement going into detail about his thought process, and an apology for his poor communication on the topic.

“To all, I wish to begin by apologizing for how I failed to effectively communicate my rationale for not recommending this specific course for approval to the State Board of Education. As an elected official, I owe all citizens of Georgia an explanation for any decision I make. To all our school districts, I apologize for any confusion that this may have caused as well,” Woods began in his statement.

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As the back-and-forth over the course and AP credit continued in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp had requested information on the decision from Woods, noting that Georgia was a state where it was up to parents to decide what their children’s academic needs were, and how to meet them.

In the letter from the governor to Woods, Kemp said “families should ultimately make the decisions which best meet their child’s academic needs and futures,” in a phrase reminiscent of his previous commentary on parental rights in education, such as when he signed off on a bill banning so-called divisive concepts in 2022′s Parents’ Bill of Rights legislation.

While a few days after the superintendent’s decision, it appeared the state had somewhat changed course, confusion persisted across Georgia.

Some districts in the metro Atlanta area announced they would fund the program themselves, while others said the mixed messages meant they would not be funding the program this year.

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However, it was the divisive concepts legislation that Woods centered his rejection of the course upon.

“At the completion of the mentioned course pilot year and the finalization of the course standards and framework, I was approached to either move the course forward for adoption or to not recommend. As this course had received much controversy over the pilot year concerning some content, I proceeded to read the complete course standards and framework,” Woods explained. “This was done to see if the course material violated Georgia law 20-1-11. This section of Georgia law deals with the topic of ‘Divisive Concepts’ as was initiated in the originating legislation of House Bill 1084.”

To that end, Woods said that parts of the course’s content violated Georgia’s divisive concepts law, so he chose to reject the course. In particular, Woods said that the topic of intersectionality in the course was at issue, though “there are additional areas of concern, but this topic raises the highest level of concern.”

The state superintendent said that had the course provided a “comparative narrative with opposing views on this and other topics,” it was possible the course would not violate Georgia law.

Woods added that allowing the course would have made him break his oath of office and would require him to ask the state and local school districts to ignore state law in the process.

Still, while statewide approval for the course remains off the table for Woods, he said districts can individually adopt the course in question still, though “the content may be challenged” for violating the state’s divisive concepts law if adopted in full without addition or editing.

“Can students currently take a course on African American Studies? Yes. I passed an African American Studies course in 2020. Though not specific in content, districts have had the ability to offer this course to all students, not just those taking an AP class,” Woods said, in similar comment to previous responses over the course. “Currently, I have asked for legal clarification as it pertains to 20-1-11. There may be an exemption as it pertains to course adoption for not only AP courses but also International Baccalaureate (IB) and dual enrollment college courses. Should the ruling reverse my decision, then I will follow the law.”

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