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The Washington Post reports: Florida schools drop AP Psychology after state says it violates the law, a good example of the media getting as close to lying as you can get while still remaining in not-quite-lying territory.
As far as I know, this all started last Thursday, when the College Board issued a statement regarding its AP Psychology course and Florida law. In this statement, the College Board wrote: "The state has said districts are free to teach AP Psychology only if it excludes any mention of [content on sexual orientation and gender identity]."
Citation (desperately) needed! Contrary to what the College Board says, I have been unable to find any source on the internet prior to the College Board's statement corroborating their claim about what the Florida department of education requires. The Washington Post claims that the statement was based on a "conference call" between the board of education and school superintendents, but again, I have found no stories where the reporter interviews someone involved in the call in order to confirm the College Board's characterization of what was said.
On the contrary, on Friday, the day after the College Board published its statement, the director of the Florida Department of Education wrote a letter to the school superintendants, clarifying that
As far as I know, this letter is the only official statement from the Florida Department of Education regarding the application of the Parental Rights in Education ("Don't Say Gay") law to the teaching of AP Psychology. And yet a google search of "ap psychology Florida" returns headline after headline of major news outlets reporting the College Board's interpretation of this law as if Florida had gone out and "banned" the teaching of AP Psychology in its schools.
Without knowing anything about the conference call (because no reporter bothered to check), I have to caveat that maybe Florida did suggest that some parts of AP Psychology could not be taught, only to backtrack after being called out by the College Board. But for me, it seems like a dishonest characterization of the law intended to make Florida and DeSantis look bad.
EDIT:
Okay, having done a bit more research by going back to read the College Board's previous statements on this matter, I have to admit that my characterization was mistaken. In particular, in their June statement on the AP Psychology course, they reference correspondence from the Florida Department of Education Office of Articulation (what a name!), asking the College Board to affirm that their AP Psychology course conforms to the new Florida law. Still not a "ban," but definitely the College Board is not engaged in the unprovoked attack on Florida that I was imagining. There was definitely some provocation.
I do still think this is more about grandstanding by the College Board than a straightforward application of the law, but I was wrong in thinking that the College Board was one-sidedly attacking the Florida Department of Education.
Motte: teaching AP Psych in Florida is a liability. “Age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards” is vague as hell, and the administration remains interested in waging the culture war. This is a textbook chilling effect.
Bailey: DeSantis is coming for your kids! Worse, he’s going to cripple their college applications! Panic!!
I’m not sure if the motte is convincing. Florida has not, as far as I can tell, sanctioned any district or teacher for age-inappropriate curriculum. The strategy is instead to ban a book, or just remove material en masse, citing the law. This is the whole point of an institutional advantage: they don’t have to do any enforcement if people fall in line.
On the other hand, I am sympathetic to the fear that mentioning sexuality opens teachers up to a lawsuit. Specifically, parents may be entitled to damages. A heckler’s veto is a bad idea, especially when parents are known to have a hair-trigger. In Florida, we do already have an example of one woman going after a number of books. Good luck mentioning Freud without offending at least one parent!
This doesn’t justify the media coverage, which is firmly outside any motte.
Florida authorities really don’t seem to have taken any direct shots at AP Psych or even the College Board. Though if the latter keeps making statements like this, I won’t be surprised when Florida decides to escalate.Edit: further evidence suggests Florida did in fact accuse CB first.
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