(Sacramento, California, 9/20/2019) Progressive Zionist activists were in Sacramento today to speak to the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC), an advisory body to the California State Board of Education, currently reviewing a widely criticized draft of proposed Ethnic Studies curriculum.
Steering committee Susan George gave testimony, noting “The Ethnic Studies curriculum needs to reflect California’s population. It needs to comply with the intent of the legislature in AB 2016, and with all sections of the California Educational Code. And the IQC needs to apply appropriate oversight to prevent the waste of taxpayer dollars and staff time that this draft produced.
Progressive Zionists of California joined our partners at AJC San Francisco, AJC Los Angeles, StandWithUs, and many more to hold the committee accountable, and to keep antisemitic bias from being institutionalized. We look forward to future drafts that reflect California’s diversity, and fulfill AB 2016’s aspirational educational ideals.
Full Transcript of Susan George’s remarks:
My name is Susan George. I am here representing a grassroots coalition of over 200 progressive Zionists.
One of the many problems with this draft that the individuals who wrote it decided on their own to pick and choose who from “Asian Americans” should be included. It completely ignores South Asian Hindu Americans, Korean Americans, Armenian Americans, and Jewish Americans—a significant number of whom in California have no European ancestry at all.
The Ethnic Studies curriculum needs to reflect California’s population. It needs to comply with the intent of the legislature in AB 2016, and with all sections of the California Educational Code. And the IQC needs to apply appropriate oversight to prevent the waste of taxpayer dollars and staff time that this draft produced.
Our students deserve education, not indoctrination.
About Progressive Zionists of California:
PZC is a grassroots coalition of Democrats that supports the self-determination of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, addresses antisemitism wherever it arises, supports progressive policies in the California Democratic Party, and stands against the undemocratic policies of right-wing Israeli leadership.