Photo Credit: The Raleigh News and Observer
*This article was featured in the April print edition of The Blue and Gold.
The class of 2017 and more than 14,000 other Georgia high school students may not have the opportunity to take an advanced class that has become a staple of junior year transcripts.
In early February, the Georgia senate passed Senate Resolution 80 on March 11, which proposed cutting funding to the Advance Placement (AP) United States History course. College Board, the company that administers the AP courses, had introduced a new framework for the AP United States History course for this school year. The Georgia senate considered the new course as “radically revisionist” and “emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.”
The resolution has made its way to the Georgia House Committee on Education, where it was favorably reported on. The Georgia House of Representatives need to vote on the bill, and if it passes through the Senate once more, it will become a law. The bill laments that the new framework “does not include adequate discussion of America’s Founding Fathers” and that it lacks “the principles of the Declaration of Independence.”
Despite all the criticism of the new framework by lawmakers, several groups stand by the College Board.
“They [the College Board] have restructured it in terms of themes. Instead of focusing on content only, they are trying to build historical thinking skills,” said AP United States History student teacher Emily Nuttall. “The bill assumes that teachers only stick to the test, but almost all AP teachers are going above and beyond to try and make connections between topics in the curriculum.”
The state of Oklahoma proposed HB 13-80 similar to Georgia Senate Resolution 80, cutting federal funding for AP United States History in public schools. The House Bill caused outcry in both the student bodies and teachers of Oklahoma schools. Legislators in Oklahoma states that the new framework emphasizes “What is bad about America” and does not teach “American exceptionalism.”
In Oklahoma, Jenks High School junior Moin Nadeem has received more than 10,000 supports to try and table the proposed bill in an online petition.
“I just created the petition on Twitter, spread the link out, and before I knew it, it was like wildfire. Everyone was talking about it,” said Nadeem.
A similar petition, written by Georgia student Zachary Cloud, opposing Georgia Senate Resolution 80 has received almost 6,000 signatures in a little over a month. The petition reads, “Political misrepresentation of education not only skews students’ understanding of the material, but also disadvantages Georgia students on the national level.”
The Georgia legislature is past crossover, which means each chamber must vote on bills from the other, and no new bills can be proposed until the next session. A final vote from both chambers is likely to come in late April or early May. With a conservative governor in office, it is possible that Governor Nathan Deal [R] will sign the bill into law.
The proposed bill has ignited a lot of backlash from both students and teachers alike in Georgia. Several are concerned with preserving the integrity of teaching the history of our country.
“The new framework is fine, it’s not noticeably different than before,” said AP Unites States History certified teacher Brian Ely. “Not all of American history is pretty, and that’s okay.”
Although several are upset that the proposed bill will cut federal funding for AP United States History, some teachers are more upset about the actual test changing.
“Is it revisionist? It very well may be. Is it un-American? No,” said AP United States History teacher Stephen Rubino, who has saught the subject since 1993. “I’m more upset about the test itself being changed. No matter what legislators do, the teachers will always teach what they want to.”
