Ethnic Studies for Elementary Students?

The entire state of California requires progressive ethnic studies courses to be taught at all high schools, but one district has taken it a step further. Jefferson Elementary School District in California is set to be the first district in the U.S. to include ethnic studies classes in all middle and elementary schools. This initiative was formed by Community Responsive Education, a progressive organization led by critical race theorists at San Francisco State University. Alarmingly, the district is paying the group $170k in taxpayer money to implement the program for roughly 6,000 students.

These ethnic studies courses contain dangerous directives. In a presentation given at a school board meeting, co-director of Community Responsive Education (CRE) Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales explained that the curriculum is intended to “eliminate racism and other forms of oppression” by “creating, learning, listening, uncovering, and sharing of the his/her stories, experiences, and current conditions of those who have been racially marginalized, underrepresented, and/or silenced.” The courses ultimately teach children to become left-wing “co-conspirators.”

Children are also learning that the U.S. is inherently evil and each person should be viewed in terms of their skin color. The second unit of the curriculum claims that America is a white supremacist country that is institutionally racist. It accuses white people of using the system of white supremacy to maintain their “wealth, power, and privilege.” Teachers even tell children to engage in “transformational resistance” in a clear attempt to turn students into racial left-wing revolutionaries. While purportedly trying to combat racism, the curriculum actually promotes it and threatens to instill our children with a racist worldview.

The curriculum is simply a re-branding of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Administrators are well aware that parents widely oppose CRT, so they cannot call it what it is. Just like CRT, the CRE curriculum presents the traditional Marxist idea that the middle class oppresses the proletariat and reapplies the concept to race. It teaches children that victimhood and guilt stem from fixed characteristics like race rather than one’s own actions.

A report from Parents Defending Education revealed that CRE will likely be integrated in several other school districts in multiple states. This is a dangerous attack on the already corrupted public schools across the country and further evidence for the necessity of school choice. Parents must be able to remove their children from learning environments in which they will surely be indoctrinated. In order to do so, they need ample options for alternative schooling such as private schools, charter schools, home-schooling, and more.  

Now more than ever, it’s crucial that we increase our vigilance with our children’s education and know exactly what’s being taught in the classroom. We cannot let the government raise our children and influence them with racist ideas all while using our taxpayer dollars. Contact your local school board members or representatives and urge them to listen to parents and reject activist teaching.