AMCHA Initiative sent a letter to the California State Board of Education (SBE) urging SBE president Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond to dissuade local school boards from adopting the current Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) until the state approves a revised version of the curriculum.
The letter, which contains signatures from 2,503 California residents, warns of “an unscrupulous campaign to mislead district school boards into approving and making plans to implement the divisive and highly flawed first draft of the AB 2016-mandated high school ethnic studies model curriculum.”
“The original draft promotes highly controversial political ideologies that can’t help but exacerbate ethnic divisions and foment bigotry in our schools,” the letter added. “This is not the ethnic studies curriculum that we want for our children, our school districts or our state.”
Various Jewish groups have criticized the initial ESMC draft in 2019 of glorifying the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and not listing anti-Semitism as a form of bigotry. The SBE shelved the current draft in response to criticism; California Gov. Gavin Newsom later said that ESMC draft will never come to fruition.
Fifteen school boards in the state have approved the 2019 ESMC draft, including Oakland Unified School Board and San Francisco Unified School Board. According to Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), Oakland School Board President Jody London said during a May 27 meeting that the resolution to adopt the ESMC draft was “unclear about what is it we are supporting.”
JNS also noted that Assemblymember Jose Medina (D), is pushing for the legislature to pass A.B. 331, which mandates that ethnic studies be a graduation requirement for state high schools, before the end of August. In 2019, Medina had delayed his bill for a year in response to the criticisms over the current ESMC draft.
A spokesperson from the SBE told the Journal in an email that the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) will produce a revised version at an August 13 meeting and the SBE will take up the IQC’s proposal in March 2021.
“The public will have ample opportunities to provide public comment before the model curriculum is considered by the State Board of Education in March 2021,” the spokesperson wrote.
