California’s high schools should teach ethnic studies courses but aren’t

California was the first state to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement. Assembly Bill 101, passed in 2021, mandates public schools incorporate critical race instruction. 

The Class of 2030 was supposed to be first to experience this change. These students are now freshmen, but the policy is still lacking necessary support. 

In a 2021 letter to lawmakers, Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote, “Ethnic studies courses enable students to learn their own stories.” 

He went on to say: “America is shaped by our shared history, much of it painful and etched with woeful injustice. Students deserve to see themselves in their studies, and they must understand our nation’s full history if we expect them to one day build a more just society.”

Despite such statements, Newsom’s 2025 state budget allocated zero funding for the introduction of ethnic studies. 

Implementation of AB 101 hinges on individual school districts’ actions. Those who opt not to participate can do so, ostensibly without official consequence. 

Avoiding racial divisions?

The unofficial consequences can be significant, however. 

In December 2022, Temecula Valley Unified in Southern California passed a resolution banning “critical race theory,” insisting it would prove divisive for students. 

In fact, the ban contributed to the division. In a conversation with NPR, Temecula students talked about peers claiming to “own” Black kids as slaves, calling students the N-word and doing Nazi salutes in class.

I grew up in this area and played midfield in Temecula soccer tournaments. I am a daughter of Italian and Filipino immigrants and a product of public schools in Orange County. In my experience, though districts claimed to teach from a colorblind perspective, divisive opinions on race were expressed nonetheless.

The divisions go beyond hateful speech. 

Black students are disciplined at rates unmatched by white peers. Black boys are most likely to be suspended or expelled. In 2024, Sacramento schools led the state in suspensions of Black students.

Suspension rates have been linked to the school-to-prison pipeline. Black Californians are nine times more likely to be imprisoned than white peers. Black and Latino men constitute 74% of the men’s prison population in California, though Black men are only 6% and Latino men are 38% of all unincarcerated men.

How would teaching ethnic studies help alleviate these disparities?

Social scientists say knowledge is first shaped socially before it’s internalized individually. School communities set an example for how students will behave as adults. 

If students are labeled troublemakers, they internalize and accept the label as truth. Those who succeed in making a new impression carry their troubled past with them. 

The consequences of inaction

There is a range between what a student learns on their own and what they’ll learn with  a teacher’s support. Without support, students risk perpetuating systemic racial abuse — regardless of their own racial identity.

Students learn to make racial distinctions without necessarily saying the words out loud. They’re ill-equipped to elucidate their own patterns of perception and reasoning. And they learn to desensitize themselves to violence, both subtle and blatant. 

Given these consequences of inaction, we shouldn’t wait for the perfect ethnic studies curriculum. 

After all, race is a component of every subject, from history to economics. To deny the influence of racial constructs is to uphold a false sense of neutrality. Explain the coincidence of 44 white male presidents, for instance.

Civics teaches students to be engaged citizens, to know the U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution and the distribution of democratic power. Teach students that Black Panther Party cofounder Bobby Seale was a graduate of Berkeley High. 

Some districts host social-emotional literacy specialists and classes. Teach students to recognize their harmful and inaccurate thoughts about their peers’ perceived identities.

It’s not enough to rely on a single ethnic studies class. I didn’t learn that the U.S. occupied the Philippines in a history class. I learned it from my family. 

If we want to reduce racial inequality in California, we must collectively share the responsibility of facilitating conversations on race. Making ethnic studies a high school requirement would be a great place to start.