SAN DIEGO — San Diego Unified laid out how it's going to spend a huge chunk of money to help students recover from COVID, which includes funds for ethnic studies.
Starting in 2025 it will be a high school graduation requirement statewide and already is for SDUSD.
Supporters say it was COVID that exposed the racial inequities and amplified the need to teach ethnic studies in schools.
In the latest and largest amount of federal money, SDUSD will receive $303 million from "The American Rescue Plan Act."
A majority of it will be devoted to help students recover academically, socially and emotionally from COVID which includes ethnic studies.
"The research around ethnic studies shows that students who are able to take part in ethnic studies courses, or courses that are framed around the lens of ethnic studies do better academically,” said Richard Barrera, SDUSD Board President. “The reason they do better academically is because it's more engaging, it helps students understand a world that they often find frustrating and confusing.”
Author and UC San Diego’s Ethnic Studies Department Chair and professor Andrew Jolivétte, Ph.D. says COVID heightened the need to address racial inequalities.
“Of course, this should be included in the funding for COVID because it's also about how do we address health disparities, right, as well as educational disparities at the same time,” said Jolivétte.
Opponents are concerned how the curriculum will be taught
“I think sometimes there's this idea or assumption that ethnic studies is about bashing white folks,” said Jolivétte. “It's about understanding humanity, right. I don't think we want to live in a world where our kids don't understand each other don't value and appreciate difference.”
Earlier this month, a Riverside high school math teacher was put on leave after an offensive video surfaced of her doing an impersonation of Native Americans during a lesson.
San Diego Unified wants to avoid these situations and will use the $9.4 million to expand ethnic studies training for educators.
“A good ethnic studies education will open up some difficult discussions in a classroom and teachers need to be prepared to not see that as something that they're afraid of, but something that is actually helping students grow,” said Barrera.
Each month the district will track the number of participants in ethnic studies professional development series as well as yearly monitoring on how many elementary classes are utilizing resources.
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