By Marsha Sutton
Times of San Diego
CARLSBAD, California — It’s clear that Assembly Bill 101 is an abysmal failure, and the mandate to require students to take a course in ethnic studies to graduate high school by 2030 needs to be abandoned.
There are four main problems with AB101’s poor legislation: the two versions of the model curriculum in circulation, the lack of state standards, the guardrails that have no teeth, and the lack of funding as required by law.
When the first Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum was developed, it was soundly rejected for the inclusion of overt antisemitic ideology, as well as content that other ethnicities also found highly objectionable.
Back to the drawing board with a second iteration of the ESMC which was supported by the state. This version was accompanied by statements from Gov. Gavin Newsom and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond that warned districts that ethnic studies content must not include bias or bigotry and should be appropriate for students of all backgrounds.
Despite the state’s endorsement of the second version, the authors and allies of the first version — now known as the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum — refused to abandon their work and have been successfully peddling the LESMC to districts throughout the state, offering consultants to help with implementation.
The LESMC frames the coursework under the lens of oppressor/oppressed ideology — with white people and Jews as oppressors. How to challenge a capitalist system that supports this “oppressive” structure — including resistance movements and activism — are key elements of the LESMC.
It’s important to distinguish between a model curriculum and state standards. The model curriculum leaves room for an infinite number of ways a course in ethnic studies could be taught, with no clear definition of what should be covered.
This leaves the door open for an array of content with no established guidelines.
State standards on the other hand set clear principles about what needs to be taught. The state has written standards for every high school graduation requirement — except ethnic studies.
In addition, the lack of oversight for appropriate supporting instructional materials for ethnic studies compounds the problem.
The guardrails put in place to ensure that lessons in ethnic studies remain free from discriminatory ideology are, in a word, useless.
With no teeth to enforce the prohibition, those forces hoping to infuse ethnic studies with content that’s at its core prejudicial have free rein to do so, with no consequences for violating the guardrails.
Someone once said that the guardrails are only as strong as the guards — of which there are none.
A key part of AB101 states, “These provisions would become operative only upon an appropriation of funds by the legislature.”
To date, there has been no funding as required, which technically makes the mandate invalid.
Some seed money was sent to districts in 2022 to help them get started with program development. But it was not connected to the ongoing funding needed to offer ethnic studies, which the California Department of Education has estimated to cost about $276 million annually.
Currently, the state has shown little appetite for this kind of appropriation, as it struggles with an already tight fiscal situation.
Questions arise about what exactly would constitute funding. Could the state give each high school district $100 — to be ridiculous — and claim the requirement is now funded?
The idea is ludicrous that California legislators would consider an amount significantly less than what it’s costing districts to implement ethnic studies as actually fulfilling this AB 101 funding requirement.
This is not to say that classes in ethnic studies don’t have value. If students are interested in African art, Indian music or other classes that focus on the customs and contributions various cultures and ethnicities bring to our diverse society — as long as there’s full transparency about content — then fine, as electives.
It’s the graduation requirement that’s so very wrong.
The ostensible purpose of the mandate was to bring students to a place of greater understanding of ethnic groups often under-represented in history classes.
Yet this positive mission is being hijacked by nefarious forces and bad actors who want to infuse ethnic studies with a divisive victim/oppressor ideology that pits communities against one another.
The problems reach well beyond antisemitism and anti-Zionism, although inclusion in some ethnic studies content of truly awful antisemitic images and tropes is shocking and inexcusable.
By falsely labeling Israel a colonial settler state with no ancestral connection to the land, which implies its existence is evil and immoral, it’s easy to extrapolate from that starting point where that narrative can go when expanded to other systems of government.
Furthermore, when someone says they are anti-Zionist but not anti-Jew, well … for many Jews who have a deep connection with the state of Israel and its continued existence, it feels like one and the same.
No one has the right to tell others what feels like antisemitism and what doesn’t. Each person alone makes that judgment for themselves, just as only members of any other ethnic group have the right to say what feels like a biased personal affront.
Outsiders of any community being targeted do not have the right to tell those on the inside what’s hurtful and what isn’t.
Without defining what ethnic studies actually is, and without solid state standards and vetted instructional materials to guide the framework, the effort to provide unbiased, consistent coursework for all California school districts is destined to go sideways.
Meanwhile, literacy and math skills are at an all-time low. Yet districts are being forced to focus on political issues that have no impact on improving basic academic objectives like teaching kids to read, write, compute and think critically.
Consider how there’s been no proven benefit in academic success with the inclusion of coursework in ethnic studies, even though districts might highlight pre-selected anecdotal comments from students who claim they enjoyed their ethnic studies classes.
Districts have been operating for the past few years, spending taxpayer money, on the assumption that a class in ethnic studies will be required for students entering ninth grade in 2026 to graduate high school, and that state funding will be coming.
However, the fact that the state has not funded the mandate, as required by AB 101, means that districts can delay the requirement without violating the law.
Far too many problematic aspects in AB 101 make this a premature piece of legislation that should never have seen the light until much-needed proper protocols had first been developed and put in place. And even then, is it really a worthwhile objective?
Districts need to put a pause — maybe a permanent full-stop — on AB 101’s ethnic studies graduation requirement.
AB 101 is clearly unworkable and should be ignored if not completely repealed.
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Marsha Sutton is an education writer and opinion columnist. This article appeared initially in Times of San Diego, with which San Diego Jewish World shares articles under auspices of the San Diego Online News Association.