On behalf of all AP teachers in our state who look at this bill and wonder if they’re next, I am asking you to vote against HB1380 in Committee on Monday. I will be attending the meeting if you’d like to visit in person about this bill.

AP US History (APUSH) is a college-level course that should not be tampered with by state politicians. The test is a strongly-vetted test that allows many of our students to earn college credit. In the past few years about 1200 of our students in OK earned some kind of credit, with some kiddos saving their parents up to $1200 in college tuition, according to the going credit-hour cost.

Schools are used to unfunded mandates…they happen too often for us to feel surprised, but HB1380 and its companion in the Senate will be an unfunded mandate for parents…forcing them to pay big bucks when before students’ achievement on the AP test would have rewarded them.

As an English teacher who never taught AP, I only have second-hand experience with the courses, but I know they are rigorous, demanding, challenging. I know we are encouraging all students to hold themselves up to the highest standards in our schools. What is the message this bill sends to these high-achieving students? AP classes are the best way to prepare students for the hard work of post-high school academics.

I am attaching a blog post by an APUSH teacher with his analysis and concerns.

Please attend to the myriad of real problems in our schools intead of choosing ideological fights that will fundamentally handicap our students when they attend college. You would be taking away a tool to make our students college-and-career ready after school. They would be behind their counterparts from other states where APUSH has not been attacked.

Please vote no…for our students and their futures.

This is just how I approached it. I’m sure there are shorter and better letters – please share yours! Make sure you address the correct bill – HB1380 in the House or SB650 in the Senate.

I’m writing to express my vehement opposition to HB1380, Rep. Fisher’s bill to kill Advanced Placement U.S. History due to its insufficiently catering to his evangelical worldview. I will try to limit myself to a few key issues with this bill:

* The ‘new’ APUSH framework, while not perfect, is designed to promote inquiry and critical thinking in our students. If we believe any of our rhetoric about preparing our young people to function in this century, we can’t be afraid that if they think too much they might disagree with us about something.

* The idea that the College Board (the organization which develops and administers AP) will somehow cater to his opposition is ludicrous. It’s completely disengenuous to suggest in the legislation itself that we can blackmail them into doing our will. I’m all for a little state pride, but if the collective $$ and influence of Texas couldn’t so much as cause a hiccup, we’re not going to terrify them with our threats. Instead, we’ll just look stupid. Again.

* The suggestion that the state of Oklahoma will develop our own version of the APUSH course and the AP test which goes with it is so delusional as to defy description. The College Board spends years and millions developing, testing, analyzing, and refining these tests. To suggest we can throw together yet another edu-committee and match this demonstrates either an ignorance so grand as to disqualify the one making it from the right to set policy or a manipulation of the uninformed so cynical as to confirm the worst stereotypes of political ‘leadership’.

On the outside chance we were to come up with something – however proud we decide we are of it – no university outside of those required to by state law to do so would recognize it or give comparable credit for it. The very suggestion is embarrassing.

* The desired impact of this legislation is unethical, irrational, and one of the more blatant attacks on our youth from a body already quite fond of undercutting public education. AP helps our students prepare for college or other post-secondary pursuits, and often leads to college credit before they get there. You know the stats as well as I – it’s good for our kids, financially and educationally.

By going after young people seeking to better prepare for higher pursuits, our legislature is not only once again undercutting and diminishing public education in Oklahoma, but taking active, cruel steps towards ensuring that our kids will be unfit and unable to repair it, or do much of anything else that might threaten the status quo or improve our state’s economy, culture, or reputation.

His bill will be heard in Committee tomorrow.