Over the last year and a half, parents received a lot of publicity for removing radical school board members in California and Virginia (here and here). In Virginia, parental opposition to school policies discriminating against Asian students, pushing Critical Race Theory (CRT), and transgender “rights” putting (cis-)girls at risk, was credited with bringing underdog candidate Glenn Youngkin to victory in last year’s gubernatorial race.
Opponents of progressive educational policies should not rest on their laurels. Just as they have fought back against radicalization of education, so too radicals promoting that education are fighting to keep control and further radicalize education policies.
In California’s Oak Grove School District (in San Jose), Taunya Jaco won election to the Board of Trustees and was sworn in as a new board member. Although Jaco claimed to run on a non-partisan basis, she is deeply embedded in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ideology, as well as “Liberated” Ethnic Studies. Her Oak Grove board member biography includes this:
Dr. Jaco is a defender of equity, inclusion, and justice in education. She conducted an exploratory documentary film study entitled Fidelity At The Forefront: The Fight For Ethnic Studies. The documentary illuminates the plight of Ethnic Studies practitioners and scholars as the state of California sought to develop the K-12 Ethnic Studies model curriculum, which is the first of its kind in the nation.
Jaco is in fact a leadership team member of Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC). Specifically, she is the lead for Chapter Two: Black Studies. She is also a former teacher, has held a variety of offices with the California Teachers Association (CTA) including as a member of its Racial Equity Affairs Committee, is a member of the National Education Association (NEA) Board of Directors, Secretary for the NEA Black Caucus, and chairs the CTA State Council’s Civil Rights in Education Committee. Jaco also served on a CTA racial justice task force dedicated to showing teachers that Black Lives Matter at school.
Jaco is either pursuing or has completed an education doctorate at San Jose State University on the implementation of Ethnic Studies in California K-12 schools and its impact on teacher preparation programs. (The LESMCC website lists her as still “pursuing” a doctorate, but a description from a Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate event from January 2022 identifies her as having completed an Ed.D., and her Twitter handle is @DrJacoSays.) According to CTA, Jaco is “using Critical Race Theory as the basis to complete her doctoral degree in Education Leadership.” Her bio sketch from the CPED event included this:
While using Critical Race Theory as the basis to complete her doctoral degree in Education Leadership at San Jose State University, Dr. Jaco conducted an exploratory documentary film study entitled Fidelity At The Forefront: The Fight For Ethnic Studies. The documentary illuminates the plight of Ethnic Studies practitioners and scholars as the state of California sought to develop a K-12 Ethnic Studies model curriculum, which is the first of its kind in the nation.
Ethnic Studies as a field is deeply intertwined with both CRT and anti-Semitism (typically posing as anti-Zionism, but also clearly anti-Jewish).
As LIF has reported, LESMCC is the group behind the 2019 model curriculum that California rejected for anti-Semitism. It is now marketing its version of ethnic studies privately to school districts, and has signed contracts to provide its “expertise” to Castro Valley, Napa Valley, and Hayward Unified School District.
LESMCC’s curricular focus on “Palestine” paints Israel as a horrid human-rights violator abusing Palestinian Arabs out of racism, “Islamophobia”, etc. LESMCC tries to counter charges of anti-Semitism proactively by redefining it. “Antisemitism is discrimination against, violence towards, or stereotypes of Jews for being Jewish,” LESMCI asserts. In other words, LESMCC claims, anti-Semitism is strictly a religious hatred. It has nothing to do with racism or any hatred against Jews based on race, ethnicity, or nationality.
Jaco’s platform included this: “Supporting students means supporting teachers, specialists & support professionals.” In other words, teachers know best what and how to teach. Parents should butt out. It’s the same mindset Terry McAuliffe blurted out during his debate with Glenn Youngkin, that probably cost McAuliffe reelection as Virginia’s governor;
The same mindset California’s Rep. Eric Swalwell recently aired in responding to South Carolina’s Sen. Tim Scott:
Expect to see many more candidates who are wholly in the tank for critical race theory and ethnic studies, and who are members of the educational bureaucracy, running for school board positions.
Last year’s victories should not blind parents of the need to keep fighting. They’ve won some battles, but the war has just begun.
UPDATE 12/22/22: The article originally referred to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin as Todd Youngkin. Our apologies for the mistake.
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