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    Gov. J.B. Pritzker's letter to the College Board about the Advanced Placement course in African American Studies.

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    Gov. J.B. Pritzker's letter to the College Board about the Advanced Placement course in African American Studies.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Download as pdf or txt
    48K views2 pages

    College Board Letter

    Uploaded by

    tempuser59
    Gov. J.B. Pritzker's letter to the College Board about the Advanced Placement course in African American Studies.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    January 25th, 2023

    To Mr. David Coleman,

    As Governor of the great state of Illinois, I have spent every day of the last four years fighting to
    ensure that every Illinoisan has the same opportunities regardless of the color of their skin, the
    zip code they live in, or the school they attend. That fight includes the opportunity to learn
    without the threat of bigotry and hatred guiding lessons plans. I am writing to you today to urge
    the College Board to preserve the fundamental right to an education that does not follow the
    political grandstanding of Governor DeSantis and the whims of Republicans in Florida.

    Advanced Placement courses are a core part of the high school experience for students wishing
    to push themselves academically and prepare themselves for college. Each year, over 115,000
    public school students in Illinois take AP exams. In 2020, our state ranked number one in the
    country for largest year-over-year increase of students scoring a 3 or higher on these exams.
    These passing scores translated into credit at public universities across Illinois and the country,
    resulting in thousands of dollars in tuition saved, often for those students most in-need of
    financial assistance. We value Advanced Placement courses in this state and have no doubt as
    to the efficacy of the program. However, I am extremely troubled by recent news reports that
    claim Governor DeSantis is pressuring the College Board to change the AP African American
    Studies course in order to fit Florida’s racist and homophobic laws.

    Illinois expects any AP course offered on African American Studies to include a factual
    accounting of history, including the role played by black queer Americans. Illinois will closely
    examine the official coursework to ensure it includes all necessary history, starting with this
    nation’s foundation built on slavery, the Civil War where this nation reckoned with that history
    and the decades of rebuilding and efforts of black Americans to continue their fight for equality
    and equity to this day.

    Black history is American History. Many students who will take this class encounter racism on
    a personal and systemic level long before they reach high school and take their first AP class.
    For some, a course such as this may be one of the first times they see their own faces and
    experiences reflected back to them on the page. They deserve the opportunity, alongside their
    classmates, to learn the honest and accurate history of the nation they live in now. It’s often
    said that we study history so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. This cannot be
    achieved when a misleading version of history is taught. If we refuse to teach our next
    generation honestly we are bound to repeat old cycles and reopen old wounds—fueling the
    animus that Governor DeSantis uses to score attention and divisive headlines.

    Regardless of some leaders’ efforts, ignoring and censoring the accurate reporting of history
    will not change the realities of the country in which we live. In Illinois, we will not accept this
    watering down of history. I urge you to maintain your reputation as an academic institution
    dedicated to the advancement of students and refuse to bow to political pressure that would
    ask you to rewrite our nation’s true, if sometimes unpleasant, history. One Governor should not
    have the power to dictate the facts of U.S. history. In Illinois, we reject any curriculum
    modifications designed to appease extremists like the Florida Governor and his allies.

    Sincerely,

    Governor JB Pritzker

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