Four hours before the Sept. 30 deadline, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 331 — a bill to require that California high school students complete a course in ethnic studies.
Newsom
correctly pointed out that the current ethnic studies model
curriculum is unbalanced and needs revision — as I and
others have pointed out. Writing in the Wall Street Journal,
I was the first published critic of the 2019 draft of the
curriculum. I also provided, again in the Journal, a
thoroughgoing criticism of the 2020 draft.
The 2019
draft was interwoven with jargon, bigotry, and revolutionary
anti-capitalist propaganda. Newsom himself had condemned
that draft and promised it would be “substantially
amended.” Linda Darling- Hammond, president of the State
Board of Education, said she also thought revision was in
order.
Although the
2020 draft toned down the 2019 language, it kept the
anti-capitalism and underlying critical racial theory. The
2020 draft continued to neglect the findings of mainstream
social science and refused to give ethnic students any
understanding of the achievements of minority groups and how
others could similarly succeed in America. It further
continued to treat ethnic studies classes as training
sessions for future identity-politics activists.
The new
version explicitly condemned capitalism as oppression. It
relied on socialist historian Howard Zinn’s erroneous
narrative of American history, citing him 19 times. It
mentioned Malcom X twice as often as Martin Luther King, Jr.
as well. It recommends that students study the philosophy
and growth of the racist and anti-Semitic Nation of Islam.
One of the sample classes (on “resistance”) listed cop
killer Mumia Abu Jamal’s website as a resource. Jargon was
still present: the guiding principles of ethnic studies are
said by the document to include a critique of “white
supremacy, racism, … patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy,
capitalism, ableism [and] anthropocentrism.”
The veto
happened not only because of this content, but also because
of the process for creating the curriculum and the politics
associated with it.
When the
2019 version was sent back to the drawing board, there were
three main strategies for revision: 1. Fight to keep the
2019 draft as is (the position of the drafters and the
radical identity- politics movement; 2. keep the essence of
the 2019 draft but tone down the language (State
Superintendent Tony Thurmond and his Department of
Education); or 3. revise it more deeply and thoroughly (the
position held in various forms by Newsom, Darling-Hammond,
various ethnic groups, business groups, and social
scientists (such as myself and UCLA economist Lee Ohanian).
The
California Department of Education tried to follow its
toning-down approach. But it was sabotaged from within by
the “keep 2019” proponents and from the outside by the
identity- politics movement’s well-organized lobby. This
sabotage was most evident in the August 13, 2020, meeting of
the state curriculum commission where commissioners directed
the Department of Education staff to return in November with
a glossary — which in the 2019 draft was replete with
critical race theory and jargon — and the deleted 2019
draft’s lessons. Those lessons heralded militant and
violent revolutionaries as models for students to study and
conceivably emulate.
Various
Democratic politicians, including Newsom, had hoped for
greater inclusiveness in the 2020 draft, perhaps including
Jews and Armenians, who were massacred abroad yet overcame
difficulties and discrimination to succeed in America.
Jews and
Armenians had lobbied to be included in the 2020 model
curriculum, as did Sikhs and Koreans. But this was not to
be.
Here’s the
formula for an improved ethnic-studies curriculum: Get rid
of the anti-capitalist ideology. Ditch the anti-Semitism,
hidden and overt. Make ethnic studies classes a place for
learning, not training agitators. Rely on mainstream social
science, not anti-white demonization.
Instead of
solely dwelling on victimhood, ethnic studies classes should
give ethnic minorities evidence that individuals and groups
can climb the ladder in America. Such changes would support
tolerance and civil rights, improve learning, and increase
interracial understanding. Williamson M. Evers is a
senior fellow and director of the Center on Educational
Excellence at the Independent Institute in Oakland.
California
Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaking in August in Sacramento,
recently vetoed an Assembly Bill that would require state
high school students to to complete a course in ethnic
studies.
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
