This is perhaps the last place one would expect a backlash against a “left-wing agenda.”
But a “radical” new ethnic studies course is proving too much for liberal Bay Area parents, who have launched a revolt against the introduction of what they call “Marxist” classes in local schools.
Opponents of the plans say children as young as 14 are being “indoctrinated” by an ideology that does not represent their community.
The fierce backlash in Palo Alto, the birthplace of Silicon Valley, is part of a new culture war raging in California as the truly blue state becomes the first in the U.S. to require all students to take an ethnic studies course.
Even lifelong Democrats have created pressure groups that oppose “ideological” classes that, according to them, “sow intolerance,” “glorify violent movements” and “equate capitalism with racism.”
Pictured: Downtown Palo Alto, where liberal parents have launched a revolt against the introduction of what they say are “divisive” ethnic studies classes in local schools.
Palo Alto High School will pilot ethnic studies course next school year ahead of district-wide implementation in 2025-26
Palo Alto Associate Superintendent Guillermo Lopez has defended the classes, saying they are intended to “include all communities.”
They have also been embroiled in accusations of anti-Semitism.
At a Bay Area school, an ethnic studies teacher sparked outrage after presenting a lesson that incorrectly stated that the United Nations considered the creation of Israel illegal.
He also included a slide showing a hand manipulating a puppet, recalling anti-Semitic tropes about secret Jewish control of government, media and finance.
Linor Lava, a founding member of the Palo Alto Parents Alliance whose son is a rising high school senior, told DailyMail.com the proposed curriculum was “downright terrifying.”
He said that while the Bay Area was liberal, most parents disagreed with the “extreme ideologies” taught in schools.
“It doesn’t represent a big part of the community,” he added.
The dispute is a preview of what is to come in the United States, as states such as Oregon, Vermont and Minnesota plan to introduce ethnic studies from preschool through high school level in the coming years.
It focuses on different interpretations of what “ethnic studies” are.
One is an “inclusive” approach, which advocates say offers students the opportunity to learn about the contributions and struggles of California’s ethnic groups but fundamentally avoids pitting communities against each other.
It is this form of ethnic studies that has been supported by Governor Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers.
But parents in Palo Alto and elsewhere fear that out-of-touch educators are, in fact, pushing an ideological and “divisive” version that reduces history to “oppressors versus oppressed” and “seeks to create a generation of activists.”
These “liberated” ethnic studies have their roots in the neo-Marxist critical race theory of the Black Power movement of the 1960s, which has been attacked by critics for admonishing all whites as oppressors.
Proponents of liberated ethnic studies say racism and white supremacy are real and must be addressed in classrooms.
Its teaching has been restricted or banned in 17 states, according to Education Week, but only one of them, Virginia, voted Democratic in 2020.
But now it appears to be infuriating California moderates.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill requiring high school students to take ethnic studies classes to learn about the contributions and oppression of people of color in the United States.
However, some of the course content has been mired in accusations of anti-Semitism. An ethnic studies teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School in Sequoia sparked outrage after she wrongly claimed in her class that the United Nations considered the creation of Israel illegal (pictured)
Parents are concerned that educational groups like the Berkeley History and Social Science Project are encouraging schools to teach controversial material that encourages violent revolution and creates a “generation of activists.” Pictured above: A Berkeley Project lesson plan includes the Communist Manifesto and literature from the Cuban Revolution.
Lifelong Democrat Elina Kaplan co-founded the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies to challenge the use of “liberated” ethnic studies in California.
Her campaign slogan reads: “Let us not allow ethnic studies to be hijacked by a narrow ideological agenda.”
In Palo Alto, parents have expressed concern that the school district has hired an educational group whose logo is a tombstone with the inscription “here lie buried capitalism and control” as curriculum consultants.
The Berkeley History Social Studies Project has been working with the district to create a pilot ethnic studies class this fall, before the required course is implemented next year.
In May, the Palo Alto Parents Alliance circulated a letter highlighting previously announced lesson plans and texts from the Berkeley project.
These include the influential “liberated” ethnic studies book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which calls for a “cultural revolution” that “involves gunpowder.”
A presentation under a lesson called ‘Manifestos for a Just Society’ includes the Communist Manifesto and literature from the Cuban Revolution.
The school district has said the material on the Berkeley Project website does not apply to the course that will be taught to Palo Alto children.
Associate Superintendent Guillermo Lopez said The San Francisco Chronicle that the objective “is to include all communities.”
But parents have responded by saying the district has not been transparent about what is included in the course, despite repeated requests for clarity.
Sarith Honigstein, 47, said educators had refused to meet with parents or provide details beyond unit titles about what would be included in classes.
“That’s the craziest thing,” he told DailyMail.com. “There’s little to no transparency.”
“There is no opposition to ethnic studies. We expect them to embrace the real difficulties that ethnic groups have faced, such as slavery and racism.
“But the key is balance. A path that relegates groups to oppressors and oppressed is problematic for us.”
“Liberated” ethnic studies has its roots in the neo-Marxist critical race theory of the 1960s Black Power movement, which has been attacked by critics for admonishing all whites as oppressors. Its teaching has been restricted or banned in 17 states.
A petition by the Palo Alto Parents Alliance to pause implementation of the ethnic studies pilot program has garnered 1,400 signatures.
Jason Muñiz, director of the Berkeley History and Social Science Project, said his goal was not to tell teachers to teach one curriculum instead of another, but to help them tailor the class to their own district.
Similar arguments are playing out across the state: Last year, San Mateo officials received hundreds of emails from parents saying the district’s ethnic studies course was imposing a leftist agenda on students.
Superintendent Randall Booker refuted the claims.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Deborah Project, which represents Jewish and pro-Israel interests, has sued the Los Altos High School District in an attempt to get it to release documents related to its ethnic studies curriculum.
The problem has been pointed out by the Newsom administration itself, with the education adviser Brooks Allen writes to school leaders in August last year highlighting how some courses have been offering materials that promote bias, intolerance and discrimination against certain groups.
And an editorial in The Los Angeles Times He warned that the new curriculum “seems more about imposing predefined political views on students than broadening their perspectives.”
Ethnic studies will be taught in all California high schools beginning in 2025-26 and will become a graduation requirement in 2030.
Governor Gavin Newsom has allocated $50 million for curriculum development and teacher development.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the California Department of Education for comment.