Georgia state senators this week introduced a resolution condemning the revised Advanced Placement U.S. History framework and demanding that the College Board return to the old test.
Since the College Board released its revised framework for the course in October 2012, backlash has grown into a conservative movement. After the Republican National Committee adopted a resolution denouncing the new framework and its “its “consistently negative view of American history” in August, numerous states have followed suit.
The Georgia senate became the latest legislature to take action against the revised exam, according to the Gainseville Times.
The resolution, sponsored by Republican state Sen. William Ligon (pictured above), describes the new APUSH exam as “a radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.”
It also charges that the new framework “minimizes discussion of America’s Founding Fathers, the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the religious influences on our nation’s history.”
Ligon’s resolution demands that the College Board return to the old framework. If it does not return to the old test, the resolution states that Georgia will “cease expending any state funds on professional development activities, textbooks, or other instructional materials aligned to APUSH” and push for the federal government to do the same.
The state senate has not yet voted on the resolution, but on Friday State Superintendent of Schools Richard Woods announced his support for the resolution.
In a statement, he said the resolution “provides steps to address the long-term problem of high school students not being taught key people, events, and documents that are the cornerstone of the history of our nation.”
Woods also said the state would “conduct a full review of our Social Studies standards to ensure that they have proper focus on the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and all aspects of American History.”
I am willing to bet not one of the legislators in Georgia or any other state adopting such resolutions has ever taken an AP History class.
Georgians are into Margaret Mitchell’s version of the Old South.
Next, a resolution on the positive aspects of slavery.
I anticipate that not one of these high schoolers get accepted into a school above the Mason-Dixon line. If that’s the way their parents want it, so be it.
So a main contributor to the next history text will be Uncle Remos by way of Disney?