“California’s community college students are now required to fulfill an ‘ethnic studies’ requirement in order to graduate,” reported Campus Reform:
students seeking an associate degree must complete a three-unit semester or four-unit quarter class in ethnic studies. A task force will work to determine “the timing for implementation of the ethnic studies requirement as well as the definition of courses that will satisfy the requirement.”
“As the largest and most diverse system of higher education in the country, we have an opportunity to break down barriers to equity,” Board of Governors President Pamela Haynes said in the press release. “By building a faculty and staff that look like the students and communities we serve and by putting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and anti-racism at the heart of our work, we can help create a system that truly works for all our students.”
California Community Colleges — the largest system of higher education in the country — instructs over 2.1 million students at 116 schools.
Across the United States, ethnic studies and anti-racism trainings have incorporated the doctrines of critical race theory — a left-wing academic framework positing that White people in America are an oppressor group, while racial minorities are an oppressed group.
California’s new K-12 “Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum,” for example, stresses the importance of intersectionality — which “recognizes that people have different overlapping identities, for example, a transgender Latina or a Jewish African American” — in defining ethnic studies.
A section called “Useful Theory, Pedagogy, and Research” says that instructors should “familiarize themselves with current scholarly research around ethnic studies instruction, such as critically and culturally/community relevant and responsive pedagogies, critical race theory, and intersectionality, which are key theoretical frameworks and pedagogies that can be used in ethnic studies research and instruction.”
K-12 students are also being required to take classes in critical ethnic studies or critical race theory. Hispanic students in a California school district were forced to learn critical race theory. They hated it, reported Reason Magazine.
“Less than half of high school students in St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) are proficient in math or reading but” soon all of them “will be required to take a Critical Ethnic Studies (CES) course before they can graduate,” reports the Center of the American Experiment:
The graduation requirement will first apply to the class of 2025, who will take the one semester class as 10th graders in the 2022-2023 school year, according to school communication.
Course concepts will include: identity, intersectionality, race, dominant/counter narratives, racism, white supremacy, racial equity, oppression, systemic oppression, resistance and resilience, social/youth-led movements, civic engagement, hope and healing, and transformation and change.
Meanwhile, Detroit’s school superintendent, Nikolai Vitti, said critical race theory was deeply embedded in his school system: “Our curriculum is deeply using critical race theory, especially in social studies, but you’ll find it in English language arts and the other disciplines. We were very intentional about…embedding critical race theory within our curriculum.”
These school districts are not alone. Twenty percent of urban school teachers report having discussed or taught critical race theory with K-12 students, as have 8 percent of teachers nationally, according to an Education Week survey. The Seattle public school district has employed a critical race theorist who applies the controversial theory to school policies and practices as part of the district’s efforts to embed it in elementary schools.
“Unequivocally, critical race theory is taught in K-12 public schools,” said the Heritage Foundation’s Jonathan Butcher, who wrote a research paper detailing numerous instances of school districts openly using the phrase “critical race theory” in curriculum plans.
