Minnesota policymakers have entrenched Liberated Ethnic Studies ideology in every grade and academic subject in our state’s public schools—by legal mandate in 2023 and K-12 Social Studies standards in 2024.
They sold Ethnic Studies as promoting racial understanding—something all kind, empathetic Minnesotans should support.
But from the beginning, MDE and bill authors knowingly gave power to design and lead the new Ethnic Studies regime to political advocacy groups that intend to remake our schools—and our society—by replacing academic instruction with K-12 education centered on activism, resistance and “race-and-power analysis,” starting in kindergarten.
A bill to repeal Ethnic Studies and delay implementation of the Social Studies standards will be heard Tuesday, Feb. 18, by the Minnesota House Education Policy Committee. If the legislature fails to approve the bill, we know what will happen.
Here’s why: A few months ago, MDE’s handpicked “Ethnic Studies Working Group” completed its 62-page framework for implementing Ethnic Studies across our state. But MDE refused to release the framework, despite earlier promises to do so. Center of the American Experiment had to file a lawsuit to obtain it.
The framework’s content explains MDE’s reluctance. The document lays out a multi-faceted ground plan to transform our schools’ mission from providing students with academic knowledge and skills to creating political activists.
It’s the product of members and allies of the Minnesota Ethnic Studies Coalition, whose leader, Brian Lozenski—a primary framework author—has called for the overthrow of the U.S. government.
Here’s what our K-12 classrooms will look like under the framework:
- Third graders will study “solidarity movements like the Third World Liberation Front and the Delano grape strike;” study “the need for organizing” in “a racialized society;” and create “their own original dances of resistance.”
- Sixth graders will learn about “Black Power as resistance,” “explore George Floyd Square,” and “drive around the Twin Cities” looking at “murals combatting racism.”
- Ninth graders will study lynchings in Duluth in 1920. The framework teaches students nothing about America’s Civil Rights laws.
In addition, teachers will have to undergo intrusive, cult-like professional development as a condition of employment in Minnesota schools. They will be pressured to “continuously reflect on my identities and relationships to structure and power;” develop the tools to “challenge white supremacy;” and cultivate the “identity” of “emerging” “anti-racist advocate.”
They will also be subjected to “teacher self-assessments” that pose questions like the following:
- “How do I decenter my voice in the classroom and place students/community voices at the forefront?”
- “How am I disrupting the binary between teacher and students and instead working to co-construct knowledge in my classroom?”
MDE has indicated to the Center that it doesn’t intend to adopt the framework in its current form because it “does not align” with the new K-12 academic standards.
In fact, the framework aligns all too well with the Social Studies standards.
What’s really happening, it seems, is that America is undergoing a cultural/political shift. In this new environment, MDE may fear that the framework’s candid, unvarnished expression of Liberated Ethnic Studies ideology has become a political liability.
But make no mistake. MDE’s framework for implementation is the logical—and inevitable—result of Minnesota policymakers’ decision to place political activists in control of it, every step of the way.
The Walz administration and bill authors share the framework’s ideology. The administration proposed the statutory definition of Liberated Ethnic Studies, bill authors sold it as moral cultural awareness, and MDE staff wove identitarian ideology throughout administrative rules. As a result, radical Ethnic Studies ideology is now posed to become a reality in K-12 classrooms across our state. The framework reveals the authoritarian agenda that drives the entire project.
What’s more, as of Feb. 14, our new Ethnic Studies regime will be in clear violation of a new executive order, which will put federal funds at risk for all Minnesota schools if it is implemented.
The only way to avoid this looming disaster is to repeal the academic standards and laws that created it. Minnesotans should support H.F. 29, for all our children’s sake.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not represent an official position of Alpha News.
Katherine Kersten
Katherine Kersten, a writer and attorney, is a Senior Policy Fellow at Center of the American Experiment. She served as a Metro columnist for the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) from 2005 to 2008 and as an opinion columnist for the paper for 15 years between 1996 and 2013. She was a founding director of the Center and served as its chair from 1996 to 1998.
