Just 48 hours before the first day of school, the Arkansas Department of Education announced that Advanced Placement African American Studies wouldn’t count towards graduation. They said they’re reviewing the course for possible indoctrination.
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on Fox News to explain her administration’s decision to de-prioritize AP African American studies.
“We cannot perpetuate a lie to our students, and push this propaganda leftist agenda, teaching our kids to hate America, and hate one another," she said.
Sanders has not pointed to anything specific in the AP African American Studies curriculum. The Arkansas Department of Education notified teachers that they’d deleted the course code for AP African American Studies. That means students can’t get graduation credit for taking it.
They can’t punish students for not saying it. But they can use social pressure to essentially force them to say it. It worked on me when I was a kid.