Theres nothing mega about this transphobic pos

Satire btw

What the

Ron is a b****

4 things to know about Ron DeSantis’ idea to slash AP courses in Florida

Once upon a time, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was an Advanced Placement fan.

In his 2021 address to lawmakers, he touted Florida’s status as second in the nation in the percentage of high school graduates who had passed at least one AP exam. It was his primary example of how Florida “continues to make great strides” in K-12 education.

Two years later and DeSantis is feuding with AP publisher College Board over its new African American studies course, suggesting it’s based more on ideology than fact. The College Board pushed back, accusing the DeSantis administration of playing politics and spreading misinformation.

DeSantis’ response: Maybe Florida can live without College Board, which also administers the SAT college entrance exam.

Courses in the International Baccalaureate program are “actually more rigorous than AP, and the colleges accept it,” DeSantis said Tuesday. The same is true of the Cambridge program offered at some high schools, he argued.

“So Florida students are going to have that ability, that is not going to be diminished. In fact, we are going to continue to work to expand it,” the governor said. “But it is not clear to me that this particular operator is the one that is going to be needed in the future.”

Banishing the College Board from Florida could impact the state’s high school students in significant ways. Here are four questions to ponder:

What does the College Board do in Florida?

As DeSantis noted in 2021, the College Board is a major player in providing accelerated academic courses to high school students.

In 2021, the state had 199,428 teens sit for 366,150 AP exams, with 50.9% scoring a 3 or better on the 5-point scale. Many universities across the nation offer students credit for those scores — a critical factor for families looking to lower tuition.

“My son graduated high school with 30 AP credits,” Hillsborough County parent Peter Bolam told the Tampa Bay Times via email. “At Florida State University that translated into a savings of almost $6,500 in tuition costs.”

Pasco County senior Stella Tucker said she’s using a combination of AP and community college dual enrollment courses to earn a free associate degree while still in high school. The model helps prepare her for university studies, she said, while making it less onerous to complete.

“We would be completely remiss to write off AP classes,” Tucker said.

At least for now, the state encourages AP course participation. It has paid $97 per exam for students to allow access that otherwise might not be available and counts success on the exams as part of its high school grading accountability system.

Beyond that, the state has paid AP teachers $50 for each student who earns a 3 or better. Last year, it budgeted $4 million to prepare teachers for the courses as a way to improve minority student participation and success in Advanced Placement as required.

Braulio Colón, executive director of the Florida College Access Network, said that while other choices such as the International Baccalaureate program, Cambridge and dual enrollment do exist, AP is “by far the most utilized option.”

Dual enrollment for joint high school and college credit, also paid for by the state, has about 60,000 Florida students.

“Eliminating state support for these (AP) classes would significantly reduce rigorous coursework options for all Florida students,” Colón said. “This would negatively impact learning in our high schools, student’s competitiveness on college applications and their readiness for life after high school.”

What about the SAT?

In addition to its AP courses, the College Board administers the SAT college entrance exam. Just over 190,000 Florida high schoolers took the test in 2022, representing 87% of possible students. Its average score was among the lowest 10 in the nation.

The ACT college entrance exam, administered by a separate nonprofit, is also available but has much lower participation.

These tests have broad implications for Floridians because of their wide-ranging uses.

Teens can use the results as a substitute for their state high school graduation testing requirements in language arts and algebra. They submit them to Florida’s universities, which unlike many other states’ institutions require standardized test scores for admission.

Students also submit their scores to gain eligibility for Florida’s Bright Futures scholarship, which many students use to cover costs in the State University System.

“SAT and Bright Futures are joined at the hip,” said Colón of the Florida College Access Network. “It’s an example that suggests the implications for reducing access to the SAT would need to be fully understood.”

In 2021-22, the state issued 119,837 new and renewed Bright Futures scholarships, totaling $604.7 million.

How did we get here?

When DeSantis first ran for governor, he had a rather nondescript conservative education platform. He called for things like amped-up civics lessons and expanded voucher options.

During his reelection campaign, he had taken a more strident tone. Frequently criticizing schools for trying to indoctrinate children in liberal ideology, often without citing specifics, the governor focused on changing Florida’s culture.

He signed legislation restricting what schools could teach about race and gender. He approved measures making it easier to challenge library books over their content. He enacted laws he said would empower parents to take back the schools.

The College Board’s AP African American studies course drew DeSantis’ attention. Last month, he publicly attacked the course as promoting ideology over truth, and demanded changes before Florida public high schools would be permitted to offer it.

When the College Board finally released its official framework for the course, it left out some concepts DeSantis had complained about. DeSantis claimed credit, and critics blasted the College Board for capitulating. The College Board shot back that DeSantis and his administration were misrepresenting facts to advance their political agenda.

Then DeSantis said what he said about looking for something other than the College Board.

What happens next?

In the absence of legislation, students and their families are left with many questions. Among them: Would lawmakers phase out the College Board’s involvement or cut it off immediately? What would happen to students who have already amassed AP credits? How would Florida make other opportunities for college credits just as accessible?

DeSantis said he’s already in conversation with lawmakers about bringing in alternatives.

For the advanced courses, he mentioned International Baccalaureate, Cambridge and dual enrollment. Each already has some presence in Florida schools but are not always readily available. Dual enrollment has course and grade prerequisites that AP does not.

High-ranking Department of Education officials have hinted in social media that an organization called Classic Learning Test, or CLT, is a potential option to fill in for SAT.

The group is having a national seminar in Florida this spring. It has marketed itself by saying, “Instead of giving your business to College Board, consider taking one of our exams. At CLT, our mission is to reconnect knowledge and virtue by providing meaningful assessments and connections to seekers of truth, goodness, and beauty.”

House Speaker Paul Renner, a Palm Coast Republican, has shown support for change.

“There are other providers in the market capable of preparing our students for success at the next level,” Renner told the Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau via email. “We will evaluate and contract with providers that are focused on delivering high-quality and fact-based education, not indoctrination.”

Florida bill would end diversity programs, ban majors, shift power at universities

A bill filed this week in the Florida House would turn many of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wide-ranging ideas on higher education into law by limiting diversity efforts, vastly expanding the powers of university boards and altering course offerings.

House Bill 999, filed by Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, proposes leaving all faculty hiring to boards of trustees, allowing a faculty member’s tenure to be reviewed “at any time,” and removing majors or minors in subjects like critical race theory and gender studies. It would also prohibit spending on activities that promote diversity, equity and inclusion and create new general education requirements.

DeSantis’ administration has been alluding to legislation like this for weeks. In early January, his budget office required all universities to detail what they spend on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And on Jan. 31, the governor held a news conference announcing a sweeping package of changes that mirror those in Andrade’s bill.

Andrade was not immediately available for comment, his office said.

General education courses, the bill says, “may not suppress or distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, such as Critical Race Theory, or defines American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.” It spells out communications, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and math courses that may count as general education credits.

“Whenever applicable,” the bill says, the courses should “promote the philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization and include studies of this nation’s historical documents, including the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments there to, and the Federalist Papers.”

In addition to existing metrics like graduation rates and retention rates, universities also would be evaluated on how well they provide industry certifications and whether they are educating students “for citizenship of the constitutional republic.”

In addition, the bill would greatly expand the role of boards of trustees at each school, which in turn would increase the governor’s role in university life. The governor holds the greatest influence on who serves as a university trustee, with the ability to appoint six members to each board. The state Board of Governors can make five appointments, but that panel is also largely appointed by the governor.

The bill would require all faculty hiring to be done by boards of trustees. The boards may delegate the role to presidents, but a president would not be able to delegate the role to anyone else.

“The president and the board are not required to consider recommendations or opinions of faculty of the university or other individuals or groups,” the bill says. It also would make presidents responsible for conducting performance evaluations of all employees making over $100,000.
In addition, the bill would prohibit diversity statements, which are short essays often used during the hiring or promotion process to describe a candidate’s commitment to diversity and equity.

But the measure also makes clear it would not do away with every function that university diversity offices typically tend to. It would not prohibit programs for Pell Grant recipients, first generation college students, nontraditional students, transfer students, students from low-income families, or students with unique abilities.

DeSantis’ Jan. 31 announcement included only basic information on the “civics institutes” he proposed at three of the state’s 12 public universities, but Andrade’s bill offers new details.

The Florida Institute for Governance and Civics at Florida State University, established in 1981, would develop coursework about the origins of the American political system; develop resources for K-12 and college students “that foster an understanding of how individual rights, constitutionalism, separation of powers, and federalism” function; and become a national resource on polling and making civic literacy recommendations, among other duties.

The Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom at Florida International University, funded by the Legislature in 2020, would function as a college — hiring faculty, enrolling students and awarding degrees.

The Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida, established last year, would coordinate with the other two centers, according to the bill.

Why can’t he use say it out loud?

We all know it already

He a racist piece of s***.

if this dude becomes president im killing myself

Not the actual name of the bill, but useful info in the thread

flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/991/?Tab=BillText

Fight back in a better way
They want you dead already

😡

Can somebody with better understanding of these things please explain what the bolded part of this excerpt means

“ (1) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, a No Florida College System institution, state university, Florida College System institution direct-support organization, or state university direct-support organization may not, directly or through a contract, grant, or agreement that provides services, shall expend any funds, regardless of source, to: (b) Promote, support, or maintain any programs or campus activities that violate s. 1000.05(4)(a) or that espouse diversity, equity, and inclusion or Critical Race Theory rhetoric. “

they want Black Student Union, Feminist/pro-women clubs, and LGBTQIA+ alliance to be illegal for FL universities to financially support

DeSantis is a competent Trump.

Scary.

DavidP?

No, not me.

it doesn't make college groups/clubs that espouse these views explicitly illegal in terms of speech but it forbids colleges from outright endorsing or funding them on an administrative/board level. the referenced section from florida law is the following

(...) expands the definition of discrimination based on
race, color, national origin or s***to include certain enumerated concepts and prohibits
a university from endorsing such concepts through mandatory training or instruction.

theoretically this would also make college campuses with things like palestinian liberation groups illegal but it's to be seen if this is enforced in that regard or if it's kept along racial/sexual orientation lines

Logic?

On one hand I hate college board for plenty of reasons. On the other hand I hate DeSantis.

It's like the Jan 6th events. I support people rioting against the government for pissing people off, but it was all for the wrong reasons.

That is my username.

so are you telling me people think this man is smart

What is he doing that isn’t smart?

policy wise making the disney district not a specially preserved district will raise taxes an insane amount for people and result in major job losses.

speaking wise he talks in bullet points and always ends up using the word woke as a crutch

Policy wise, he’s trying to appeal to tech nerds so maybe he’s making room for them

A lot of universities have D&I offices (I work at one), they would all need to be closed and any project that mentions diversity would be shut down