Is the College Board Corrupt?

David Coleman (pictured above) has been College Board president since 2012.

By DARREN COONEY, December 12th, 2023

APs and SATs are a big part of high school life, but what do you know about the company behind them: the College Board? Is it a government-run charity? A private company? A sick prank devised by the truly insane? 

For all the impact it has on our lives, the College Board is surprisingly enigmatic. It calls itself a “not-for-profit educational organization,” which raises more questions than it answers to anyone who paid their AP test fee. 

Indeed, finance is one of the most mysterious aspects of the College Board and a source of constant scrutiny. As a non-profit, its goal is not supposed to be to run a profit, and yet, it generates a glut of “excess revenue” - somewhere in the hundreds of millions - off AP and SAT fees. 

So where does all that money go? One of the most opaque - and suspicious - aspects of the College Board are its finances. With some extrapolation, it’s easy to see large portions of it falling into the pockets of their CEO, David Coleman, who makes over $2.5 million a year as of 2020. 

The College Board’s shady financing is only one avenue of criticism. In recent years, AP classes, a major source of their profit, have come under scrutiny. AP classes, critics argue, subject students to unnecessary stress. Taking several APs foists an undue amount of work on high schoolers, many of whom take the classes solely to boost their standings with colleges.

While APs offer an opportunity to gain knowledge in areas relevant to you, more and more see them as a necessity, a concerning viewpoint considering their difficulty. 

Among the College Board’s growing selection of classes is AP African American History, a course dedicated to exploring the achievements and experiences of black Americans.

 From its inception, the class was labeled “political” by its opponents, who cited the presence of thinkers like Angela Davis in its curriculum as proof of left-wing bias. Among the class’s harshest critics was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who banned it in January of this year, saying it “exemplified the woke indoctrination of students.” 

The College Board responded by purging the course of radical elements, drawing criticism from historians who argued they were necessary for recounting black history. Regardless of your opinion, the situation reveals how quickly the College Board will yield to political pressure, going so far as to change an entire curriculum to fit a politician’s demands. 

The College Board is a deeply flawed organization, but there is no alternative, and therein lies the problem: the College board has an education monopoly. The company administers SATs, APs - most everything except the ACT. The College Board exemplifies the worrying fusion of public and private in the education industry - it’s a company acting as a college gatekeeper. 

As of right now, there’s not much we can do about this. The College Board, for all its faults, provides useful services. After all, what kind of school wouldn’t let its students pursue APs or take SATS? While its services are helpful, perhaps the College Board’s role in the education industry should be reconsidered.