The U.S. House Committee on Education & the Workforce named Berkeley Unified School District in a report released Wednesday which concludes that antisemitism and political activism have made their way into K-12 classrooms.<\/p>\n
The California Department of Education has previously overruled<\/a> the findings of BUSD\u2019s internal investigations multiple times<\/a> and has concluded that antisemitism took place in BUSD schools.<\/p>\n Audra McGeorge, the House committee\u2019s spokesperson, noted in an email that the prior allegations of antisemitism in BUSD, including concerns raised by parents and students, \u201cwarranted further examination.\u201d<\/p>\n The committee investigated the School District of Philadelphia, Fairfax County Public Schools and the National Education Association as well as BUSD. The Wednesday report focuses on BUSD\u2019s \u201cliberated\u201d ethnic studies curriculum, among other topics.<\/p>\n \u201cParents send their children to school to learn reading, writing, and math \u2014 not to be taught to hate Israel or embrace radical political causes,\u201d said Committee Chairman Tim Walberg in a press release. \u201cYet that\u2019s exactly the kind of material our investigation uncovered.\u201d<\/p>\n The report notes that BUSD has repeatedly collaborated with the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, allegedly resulting \u201cin lessons littered with antisemitic resources along with the activist ideology that fuels contemporary antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n The report includes evidence such as BUSD\u2019s ninth-grade Arab American studies unit, which \u201cteaches students that resistance is a form of \u2018cultural wealth\u2019\u201d and references individuals and organizations, such as cultural critic Edward Said, that the committee alleges are connected with antisemitism.<\/p>\n The report also notes BUSD\u2019s fourth-grade ethnic studies unit, which introduces the terms \u201ccolonization,\u201d \u201cdecolonization\u201d and \u201csettler.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTeachers in this school district make a real effort to do their job \u2014 to do it well,\u201d said Corey Wade, a math and data science teacher at Berkeley Independent Study. \u201cThey\u2019re not trying to indoctrinate, they\u2019re trying to educate about difficult issues and they\u2019re willing to bring forth different perspectives. And just because one person finds a perspective offensive, it doesn\u2019t mean it shouldn\u2019t be included.\u201d<\/p>\n The committee also released more than 1,000 pages of files from its investigation of BUSD. The files include instructional materials, as well as BUSD staff email communications regarding Palestine, curricula and other topics.<\/p>\n Several first and last names of BUSD staff members are visible in the emails included in the files, although it appears that their email addresses have been redacted. Yvette Felarca, a member of the Equal Opportunity Now\/By Any Means Necessary Caucus, emphasized that the inclusion of these names leaves the individuals \u201copen to further harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can tell you that teachers who are making the choice to be supportive of Palestine don\u2019t let things like this stop them,\u201d Wade said. \u201cI think what it does is it forces teachers to kind of recalibrate and think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Several slideshow presentations are included in the files on BUSD. One slide, for example, includes a colorful illustrated image of a woman holding a globe, surrounded by nature, and includes the phrase \u201cTikkun Olam.\u201d<\/p>\n The slide describes this saying as \u201ca powerful Jewish value that means, to heal the world\u201d and asks students how people with different perspectives within the Jewish community might interpret or enact this value.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a longstanding tradition of mobilization to the school board or other venues at moments like this, and I\u2019m sure that will continue,\u201d Felarca said in an email regarding community mobilization.<\/p>\n The files also include a message from BUSD Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel that offers teaching resources for Arab American and Southwest Asian and North African Heritage Month.<\/p>\n One page of the message includes \u201cbeautiful books\u201d to teach, as well as \u201clocal organizations & programs to learn about,\u201d such as the Middle East Children\u2019s Alliance. The committee\u2019s report alleges that the Middle East Children\u2019s Alliance \u201chas been tied to a U.S.-designated terror group.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cParents and activists in our community have been warning for years of what this Congressional report now makes clear: Berkeley schools teach biased, politically charged material that undermines Jewish students\u2019 identity and can fuel antisemitism,\u201d said Itamar Landau, founder of the Jewish Coalition of Berkeley, in an email. \u201cDistrict leaders have been unable or unwilling to recognize the harm caused by this curriculum, not only to Jewish students but to every student.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. House Committee on Education & the Workforce named Berkeley Unified School District in a report released…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[195350,195346,96734,6765,3636,195345,184274,195352,9313,195349,195347,195000,37488,184270,195348,195351,23528,143,145,144,3783,42761,42759,184272],"class_list":["post-505415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-arab-american-and-swana-heritage-month","tag-audra-mcgeorge","tag-berkeley-independent-study","tag-berkeley-unified-school-district","tag-california-department-of-education","tag-committee-on-education-and-workforce","tag-corey-wade","tag-edward-said","tag-enikia-ford-morthel","tag-equal-opportunity-now-by-any-means-necessary-caucus","tag-fairfax-county-school-district","tag-itamar-landau","tag-jewish","tag-jewish-coalition-of-berkeley","tag-liberated-ethnic-studies-model-curriculum-consortium","tag-middle-east-childrens-alliance","tag-national-education-association","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-palestine","tag-school-district-of-philadelphia","tag-tim-walberg","tag-yvette-felarca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}