The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the old French saying goes.
Earlier this month, the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Education appointed Jose Paolo Magcalas to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of aging Trustee Katherine Smith. Magcalas ran against Smith in November 2024, but was defeated by the long-time incumbent.
Magcalas taught history and Ethnic Studies for many years at Loara High School and served on the Anaheim Elementary School District Board of Education. He is an advocate for defunding the police, thinks Thanksgiving is a racist holiday that should be “decolonized” and has no scruples about using students and school resources for political activity.
READ: J. Paolo Magcalas Thinks Thanksgiving Is Racist And Must Be “De-Colonized”
READ: AESD Trustees Magcalas, Alvarez Want To “Defund” School Safety Officers
Magcalas was one of three applicants for the vacancy, but given his tight personal and political connections with Board members and powerful Superintendent Mike Matsuda, his appointment was a foregone conclusion. Matsuda announced his retirement in July and will leave the district at the end of this year.
His appointment signals continuation of the status quo for the AUSHD. Since becoming superintendent in 2014, Matsuda – a master of public relations – has remade the district in his progressive political image. The current Board of Education is already dominated by former AUHSD employees and Matsuda allies. The appointment of his close friend, political ally and professional mentee Magcalas, means more of the same.
Magcalas’ signature passion is Ethnic Studies, which he pushes with the zeal of a revolutionary. For him, Ethnic Studies is necessary to “liberate” the minds of students from oppressive “Eurocentric” American history education.
READ: AUHSD Is Ground Zero For Pushing Politicized Ethnic Studies Curriculum
With Matsuda’s support, Magcalas created AUHSD’s first Ethnic Studies curriculum. As a member of the AESD Board of Education, Magcalas pushed successfully to make Ethnic Studies a graduation requirement and infuse Ethnic Studies into every grade level at the K-6 elementary school district.
Like his mentor Matsuda, Magcalas is also a strong opponent of charters schools as an alternative to conventional public schools.
READ: Magcalas & Friends: Covertly Using School Resources For Anti-Charter School Activity
In a white paper he wrote for UCLA’s Center X – which aims to “transform” public schools into engines of social justice activism – entitled “Ethnic Studies and Youth Participatory Civic Action Research in Anaheim, California,” Magcalas describes how the AUHSD’s “Walk To Celebrate Our Schools” events are an outgrowth of the Critical Pedagogy ideology he was imparting to students in his Ethnic Studies class.
Also as a member of the AESD Board of Education, Magcalas supported spending a million dollars in taxpayer funds on an unsuccessful lawsuit to stop Palm Lane Elementary School parents from converting their school into a charter school.
