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

ATLANTA (AP) — 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.

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