Georgia superintendent says Black studies course can be taught after legal opinion

ATLANTA — Georgia's Superintendent of Schools Richard Woods now says school districts may teach a new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies after all, now that Georgia's attorney general said the state's law against teaching divisive racial concepts specifically exempts such college-level courses.

Woods said Wednesday that a letter from Attorney General Chris Carr to a Republican state lawmaker ''completed the clarification process'' for him. Woods had cited the law in refusing to recommend the course be added to the state's course catalog.

Woods, an elected Republican, said the state will now consider all AP and similar college-level courses to be automatically adopted. This means that after weeks of controversy, Woods won't have to recommend the African American studies course be officially adopted, and members of the state Board of Education won't have to vote on the question.

''In compliance with this opinion, the AP African American Studies course will be added to the state-funded course catalog effective immediately,'' Woods said, although he said there would be a disclaimer saying the state hadn't reviewed the material.

Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, confirmed Friday in a letter to state Rep. Will Wade that Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and dual-enrollment courses are explicitly exempted from the law, which Wade and other critics of Woods' decision had pointed out. Wade, a Dawsonville Republican, wrote the 2022 measure.

''I'm excited that students who want to seek challenging and rigorous courses will have the ability to do so,'' Wade said Wednesday.

Woods' evolving positions on the question led some districts to drop their plans to teach it without formal state approval. A lack of state approval could influence state funding and the credit students get when applying for college scholarships.

''Big picture, I am glad we have finally gotten to this point, even if the journey was long, convoluted and consequential,'' said state Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Lilburn Democrat. But she said Woods had still done damage. ''The disparate treatment of a course of study about Black history and the message it sent to Black students and families is still disheartening.''

The Advanced Placement course drew national scrutiny in 2023 when Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would ban the course. South Carolina followed this June, refusing state approval while saying that individual districts could still offer it.

The College Board is a nonprofit testing entity that offers Advanced Placement courses across the academic spectrum. Students who score well on an exam can usually earn college credit. The board has said the course is based on academic scholarship and doesn't seek to indoctrinate students.

Carr's letter notes that the law requires teachers to instruct ''in a professionally and academically appropriate manner and without espousing personal political beliefs.'' But other than that, he noted the law's text specifically exempts AP courses.

''Other than those limitations, the statutory language as enacted excludes advanced placement, international baccalaureate and dual enrollment coursework by its express terms,'' Carr wrote.

Georgia's 2022 ban on teaching divisive racial concepts in schools, based on a now-repealed executive order from former President Donald Trump, prohibits claims that the U.S. is ''fundamentally or systematically racist." It mandates that no student ''should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of his or her race.'' So far, 18 states have passed such bans.

Opponents of the divisive concepts law said the episode proves how harmful it is. Andrea Young, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, said other public school students who don't take AP courses ''should also have access to robust, accurate curricula without politically-driven interference.''

Woods, who is white, said he was particularly concerned about how the course presents the concept of intersectionality. That's a framework for understanding the effects of overlapping systems of discrimination or disadvantage. For example, Black women may face compounding disadvantages because of their race and gender. Intersectionality is one of 74 required topics in the course.