By PERRY BACON Jr.
In Alabama, the governor earlier this year forced out the state’s early childhood education director, who is a Black woman, over the use of a teacher training book that the governor deemed “woke.” In Arkansas, the state’s education department, led by appointees of the governor, recently announced students could not get credit towards graduation by taking Advanced Placement African American Studies, an attempt to effectively ban the class.
In Florida, the governor has removed two popularly-elected Democratic county attorneys from their posts and also created an election fraud unit that has wound up arresting people, sometimes at gun point, on illegal voting charges that were later dismissed. His education appointees have banned the AP African American Studies course, mandated students in the state be taught that Black people learned valuable skills while they were enslaved and forced out much of the faculty at one of the state’s colleges.
In Texas, appointees of the governor have taken over Houston’s school system and started turning school libraries into disciplinary centers.