04-07-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Politicized kids? Rogue teachers? A contentious education battle hasn't calmed in S.F.
As the U.S. has split into divisive camps over racial issues, transgender rights, the war in Gaza, women's health and more, the teaching of ethnic studies has become among the most contentious educational fights in California and other states, dividing communities and turning formerly friendly PTA parents into adversaries.
Not even liberal-minded San Francisco has escaped the battle.
Ethnic studies has become something of a symbolic punching bag for what some call public education overreach, where ideology and activism subvert the basic objectives of reading, writing and 'rithmatic.
Based on the state Department of Education's definition, the curriculum is meant to focus on the histories, cultures, struggles and contributions of historically marginalized groups, which are often untold in conventional U.S. history courses. That includes addressing the causes of racism and other forms of bigotry — ultimately so that young people develop a 'social consciousness and knowledge' to contribute to the public good and strengthen democracy.
Some school districts across the country have argued over whether to teach the course at all. More frequently, the debate in the Bay Area and elsewhere has centered on what to teach and how to teach it. Should it foster awareness and pride in students from diverse backgrounds or focus on white supremacy, racism and other forms of oppression to help students understand the world?
And what should parents or students do when educators venture into personal opinions and promote their own political views?
'There are folks who would prefer that we don't have any of these conversations in schools,' said Anna Klaster, principal of San Francisco's Independent High School and president of the administrators union. 'On the other side there are folks who think we should be having all the conversations.'
Klaster said she has seen parents opt their kids out of English classes because a reading assignment included a gay protagonist or because a text referenced magic. At the same time, she has had to help a teacher who was uncomfortable with the way her students wanted to talk about controversial subjects in her classroom.
'Everyone has feelings around this,' Klaster said.
In San Francisco, efforts to appease vocal community members riled up about ethnic studies haven't seemed to work.
During the past school year, some community members, as well as conservative organizations outside the state, have raised concerns about the content of ethnic studies courses, saying they were antisemitic, or promoted anti-capitalist activism, or dwelled on white supremacy, among other issues.
It was the first year freshmen were required to take the year-long course, which the school board had added as a graduation requirement.
While district officials reportedly considered pausing the course for a year, they will instead replace the district's controversial, homegrown curriculum with off-the-shelf content this fall.
That didn't calm critics, either.
While the district hasn't officially selected which coursework to use, one possibility is 'Voices,' created by a national social studies textbook publisher, which a group of parents and community leaders immediately panned.
It 'promotes 'dismantling of privilege,' and encourages students to see themselves as part of a political movement,' the oppositional group said in a statement Thursday. 'Students are instructed to create protest art, reflect on how they are 'complicit in injustice,' and explore 'how to resist systems of power.''
The group called on the district to suspend the graduation requirement and make the course an elective while initiating an open process to adopt an ethnic studies curriculum.
'This so-called curriculum indoctrinates our students to believe in the premise that capitalism is inherently exploitative of certain minority groups,' said district parent Jason LaMacchia in the statement. 'This is a political point of view, not critical thinking, and it has no place being taught as fact in a public school setting.'
While opposition to ethnic studies has been loud, it's unclear how widespread it is.
Last year, the district saw just three complaints related to curriculum through the uniform complaint process, although officials did not identify the courses and it was not immediately known if the investigation into each was complete.
Parents and students can also raise concerns about instruction at the school level with administrators or teachers, and there are procedures to address them, Klaster said.
San Francisco school board member Matt Alexander said that the issues raised about ethnic studies really apply to all subjects, but have been targeted at one specific course.
'The teacher's job is not to have an opinion,' he said. If you start out with the answer, you've undermined the students ability to think for themselves. I think studying protest movements is important, but telling somebody what to think is not good at all.'
Alexander noted that ethnic studies has a 'ton of support' and research showing that, academically, ethnic studies was a boon for city students.
More than 11,000 San Francisco high school students took the elective course between 2008 and 2023, most commonly freshmen, with 36% of ninth graders enrolled in the 2022-2023 school year, according to a study by the UC Irvine School of Education.
Intriguingly, students who took the course had GPA nearly 0.2 grade points higher in all subjects compared to those who didn't — considered a 'large effect' in education policy research, authors said.
The higher grades were seen across all demographics and likely pushed between 400 and 700 students into eligibility for the University of California, which requires a 3.0 GPA, according to the study.
One city parent said the course was arguably the best class his freshman son took at Lowell High School last year, with 'critical thinking skills, creativity of teaching methods, and material covered.'
'As we experienced it at Lowell this year, Ethnic Studies is basically a very solid history class with a critical perspective,' Jack Brown said in an email to the Chronicle. 'I should note that I was personally very skeptical at the beginning of the year, worried that my son's class would be superficial identity politics, sloganeering, but that was not at all the reality.'
