The House Committee on Education and the Workforce this morning requested Education Secretary Miguel Cardona investigate allegations of anti-Semitism in the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) – which is already under fire for its adoption of a radical “liberated” Ethnic Studies curriculum.
The request from Representatives Virginia Foxx (the committee chair) and Michelle Steel, who represents Orange County’s 45th Congressional District asks the Education Department to investigate whether the SAUSD Ethnic Studies Steering Committee violated Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act by “deliberately exclud[ing] members of the school district’s Jewish community from involvement in constructing an ethnic studies curriculum. This likely violated California state law.”
The SAUSD is currently being sued by several Jewish organizations for allegedly violating sate open meeting laws in order to develop a radical “liberated” Ethnic Studies curriculum unhindered by public input. The lawsuit has led to the disclosure of explosive internal district communications revealing deep-seated hostility by Steering Committee members toward Israel and Jewish “colonizers.”
READ: Development of SAUSD Ethnic Studies Curriculum Infused With Anti-Semitism, Lawsuit Alleges
“Senior officials of the Committee also discussed using Jewish holidays to approve courses so Jewish community members would not be able to attend. Specifically, two senior SAUSD officials discussed this matter over text. One stated, ‘We may need to use Passover to get all new courses approved,’ to which the other replied, ‘[T]hat’s actually a good strategy.’ ,” Steel and Fox wrote in their letter.
Additionally, while discussing a potential meeting with the Jewish Federation of Orange County, a leader of the Committee stated that ‘someone has to guide [Committee members] or they will cave in to the racist Zionists.’ This alarming display of prejudice has no place in our communities, especially from the very educators entrusted with leading our public schools,” the letter continued – referring to a text exchange between Roselinn Lee and Mike Hernandez, two SAUSD Ethnic Studies educators. Lee had been described in internal district communications as a “dictator” who was a driving force behind adopting a “liberated” Ethnic Studies curriculum.
READ: SAUSD’s Ethnic Studies Controversy: Who Is “Employee 1”?
At the direction of its radical-controlled Board of Education, the SAUSD has been paying a controversial Ethnic Studies named Sean Arce consultant to develop curriculum and train teachers. Arce is stridently anti-Israel and anti-Semitics, and last year approvingly shared a social media post applauding the October 7 massacre of 1,200 innocent Israelis by Hamas.
The entire letter is available here.
READ: SAUSD Ethnic Studies Consultant Shares Social Media Post Lauding October 7 Hamas Massacre
READ: SAUSD Board of Education Gives $92,000 Contract To Ethnic Studies Radicals For “Teacher Training”
This is the same committee that held fiery hearings last year on anti-Semitism on rampant anti-Semitism on the campuses of many of the country’s most prestigious universities. Harvard University President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill ultimately lost their jobs in the wake of their moral equivocation on the subject of tolerating anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions by their students.
