“Controversy swirls around the content of locally developed courses for Ethnic Studies. This is exacerbated by rising Islamophobia and antisemitism throughout the world. Ethnic studies courses explore the causes of racism and other forms of bigotry including anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, xenophobia, antisemitism and Islamophobia.”

• Ed101, March 17, 2024

"Most distressingly, liberationists’ emphasis on victimization narrows students’ perspectives and deprives students of the agency they need to reach their fullest potential."

– EdSource | Bill Honig | June 26, 2022

"The problem is that our school district’s proposed solution was to counter racism with more racism."

– The Washington Post | Melissa Riley | July 1, 2022

“The university should never be in the position of forcing a particular political agenda upon its own students – let alone all upon UC applicants across the state and the nation.”

– UC Faculty Letter quoted in EdSource | John Fensterwald | April 12, 2022

“Coming from vastly different racial, ethnic and political backgrounds, our growing coalition is united by our common values and shared identity as Americans. “

-Philanthropy Roundtable | Dr. Wenyuan Wu | October 13, 2021

“This is a curriculum that magnifies differences, encourages tribal loyalties and advances ideological groupthink.”

– The New York Times | Bret Stephens | March 9, 2021

“If America’s traditional ‘narratives’ are designed to encourage social mobility and prosperity, California’s proposed Marxist narratives are designed to encourage intergroup conflict and perpetual upheaval in existing institutions. That’s explicit in sample assignments, such as drafting a ‘manifesto’ of demands for the Third World Liberation Front…”

– Wall Street Journal | The Editorial Board | March 16, 2021

“The first version of the curriculum [a Critical/Liberated Ethnic Studies approach] ... was antisemitic and anti-Israel. ...It seemed written to inculcate certain biases and left almost no room for students to think for themselves." | "That kind of instruction was unfortunately prevalent throughout the first model curriculum — a tendency to indoctrinate and divide rather than to encourage students to question, think, research and form their own informed opinions." | "... many of those who objected were liberals and moderates."

- Los Angeles Times | Editorial Board | September 20, 2021

“…when we look at teacher trainings that are happening here in California, we actually have PowerPoints where there's a diagram, where private property genocide, religion and racism are all circles, equivalent circles around imperialism. And educators are told in this training, that although the Marxist ideology might scare people away, educators have to be quote, grounded in the correct politics to educate students.”

- Hemmer Time Podcast | August 5, 2021

“Constructive ethnic studies does not put students in the middle of a left-wing versus right-wing tug-of-war,” Shufutinsky said. “Racism and discrimination are approached. However, students are not held responsible for the sins of their foremothers and forefathers.”

– Los Angeles Times | July 28, 2021

"...if the vast majority of Californians and Americans knew about this, and about the content of this type of curriculum, this would not be happening."

– Politico | July 26, 2021

“Instead of ensuring that students learn how to critically analyze opposing viewpoints and make informed decisions, the CDE has determined that the only way to teach our children ethnic studies is to indoctrinate them into this victim/oppressor model. The state is wasting this opportunity to increase understanding and empathy among various ethnic groups, instead remaining tone-deaf to heartfelt concerns raised by students, teachers, parents and community members.”

– Orange County Register | Larry Sand and Lia Rensin | March 16, 2021

“This teacher is talking with me because he is alarmed by the toll this ideology is taking on his students. ‘I started seeing what was happening to the kids. And that’s what I couldn’t take. They are being educated in resentment and fear. It’s extremely dangerous.”

– City Journal | Bari Weiss | March 9, 2021

“Those who sell critical ethnic studies and its cousin, critical race theory, are using the capitalist model, which they criticize, quite well in their own enterprises and organizations. The San Mateo school district has hired an education consulting business to offer two-hour online webinars at $350 per participant… The toolkit [given to participants] notes that the concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false… welcome to the world of ethnomathematics.”

– Stanford Hoover Institution | Professor Lee Ohanian | March 2, 2021

“The current form of ethnic studies in California, the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), stokes racial divisions and animosity by subjugating our society to a binary, race-based lens and by perverting our nation’s complex history with a narrow framework of identity politics. Racial balkanization, the toxic practice of separating individuals into hostile racial boxes, has fueled this paradigm.”

– Mind the Campus | Dr. Wenyuan Wu | March 1, 2021

“The debate over a radical curriculum of ‘ethnic studies’ in high schools reveals the growing influence of ‘critical race theory’ in California and elsewhere. Several American schools are already encouraging students to analyze everything through an identity prism and to divide the world between oppressors and victims. Which raises protests... including in the progressive camp.”

– Marianne | Claire Levenson | February 24, 2021

(Click for translated PDF)

“The focus of the curriculum on critical ethnic studies has prevented the creation of what could be a rich and rewarding curriculum celebrating the heritages and histories of all, and which could have facilitated the academic journeys of underrepresented minorities within the state’s school system.”

– Stanford Hoover Institution | Professor Lee Ohanian | January 19, 2021

“Sadly, the ESMC is doing just what it claims to be undoing: erasing and overlooking individuals and communities by upholding guiding principles and a framework that excludes marginalized voices and centers Whiteness. [Critical Ethnic Studies] erroneously centers Whiteness into all conversations about non-Whites. Although White supremacy is a pivotal problem, this hyper-focus curriculum dominates the conversations and ignores the celebration of non-White experiences and contributions that are not rooted in actions of White people.”

– Orange County Register | Brandy Shufutinsky | January 13, 2021

"The result of orienting the curriculum from a critical race theory perspective is being locked into the past with a poor understanding of how identity is actually constructed and reconstructed, especially in a dramatically changing social context as well as for the large number of immigrants who do not understand this configuration of racial identity."

– Times of San Diego | Joe Nalven PhD | December 29, 2020

“We must understand the dark to appreciate the light, but to see only darkness is to be blind. The Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum will leave blind future generations unless it is profoundly changed."

- Orange County Register | Murray Bessette | December 17, 2020