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Several Georgia lawmakers told a top College Board official at a hearing Wednesday it needs to rewrite its Advanced Placement U.S. History course, which is being taught to about 14,000 public high school students in this state.
The General Assembly is considering a Senate resolution that would ask the state's education department to remove the current course framework from Georgia classrooms. The proponents of Senate Resolution 80 complained the framework, which was revised last summer, has a left-leaning bias, is inaccurate and offers a revisionist viewpoint that diminishes American history.
“It’s gone too far the other way,” said Sen. Fran Millar, a Dunwoody Republican.
The College Board official, Trevor Packer, a Fulton County A.P. U.S. history teacher and some lawmakers said the revised framework has had many positive aspects, but conceded some tweaks are necessary; for example, the description of former President Ronald Reagan’s military policies as “bellicose.”
Wednesday’s joint education committee meeting was intended to be a fact-finding mission between Packer, whose organization created the framework, and critics like retired teacher Larry Krieger, who sounded the national alarm about the revised framework. But both sides often disputed the facts throughout the packed, three-hour meeting.
“Senate Resolution 80 says we de-emphasized the Declaration of Independence. I don’t see that,” said Packer, the College Board’s senior vice president for A.P. and instruction.
Georgia is one of several states that has debated the A.P. history course framework in recent months. Many of the critics are also opponents of the Common Core education standards in effect in Georgia and about 40 other states. Packer argued the course is being mistakenly mixed up with Common Core. A.P. U.S. History course supporters noted it is an elective and said the revised framework makes students think about history instead of simply reciting facts.
Critics argue the framework omits the names of many key figures in American history and asked that lawmakers consider alternative testing options.
No timetable has been set for a vote on the resolution.
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