What Florida’s Dispute Over AP Psychology Tells Us About Higher Ed’s Next Battleground

Last week, the Florida legislature “effectively banned” AP Psychology in the state’s public schools after the college Board rebuffed the state government’s request to re-evaluate the course’s section on gender and sexuality. The move came as teachers, administrators, and independent educational organizations struggle to comply with House Bill 1557—known as the Parental Rights in Education Act—which limits how and at what age schools may educate students on issues pertaining to sexual orientation or gender identity. Originally introduced in 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis expanded the bill in July, further limiting, amongst other topics, discussions of reproductive health in middle and high school classrooms.

The move to alter or eliminate AP Psychology from state schools’ course catalogs would have prevented thousands of students from enrolling in one of the College Board’s most popular courses, and was met with widespread backlash.

Justifying their decision not to alter the curriculum at the state government’s behest, the College Board responded to the state’s sweeping measures in a press release, noting: “The American Psychological Association recently reaffirmed that any course that excludes these topics would violate their guidelines and should not be considered for college credit.” On this basis, they stated: “we cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness.” The organization also noted that the topics concerning gender and sexual orientation contained in the curriculum are not a new addition and have been included for over three decades.

However, despite skirmishes between the state and the College Board over the AP Psychology curriculum—following on the heels of another high-profile clash over AP African American Studies—the Florida Education Commissioner has indicated that the state will not ban the course from public schools’ curricular offerings. On August 3rd, Commissioner Manny Diaz wrote a letter to superintendents stating that: “the Department of Education is not discouraging districts from teaching AP Psychology. In fact, the Department believes that AP Psychology can be taught in a manner that is age and developmentally appropriate and the course remains listed in our course catalog.”

While these legislative scuffles may appear to be limited to the state of Florida for the time being, the last few years have seen state-specific education legislation spill over onto the national stage in significant ways—most notably, in debates over race-conscious admissions, DEI initiatives, and classroom instruction on racial issues. On many of these issues, Florida was a trailblazer of conservative educational policy for Republicans in other state legislatures and at the federal level. Indeed, Governor DeSantis has self-styled the state as “freedom’s vanguard,” citing amongst other policies HB 1557’s aim to “provide parents with the right to review the curriculum used in their children’s schools” and “with recourse so that state standards are enforced, such as Florida’s prohibition on infusing subjects with critical race theory in our classrooms.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action—as well as state legislation such as Texas’ SB 17, which follows Florida’s lead in banning DEI offices in academic institutions—prove that Florida’s radical education policies have a broad audience and far-reaching consequences for students and educators outside of the state’s borders. If debates over the topic of race in public school curricula offer any indication, the next battleground in America’s higher education education system will concern gender identity and sexual orientation.