DPCCC membership approved the following resolution at the November 18, 2021 regular meeting.

WHEREAS, the California Democratic Party’s platform calls upon Democrats to “ensure that schoolchildren have current textbooks, including history books that are inclusive and historically accurate” and to “support and fully fund ethnic studies as a required public secondary school course with a curriculum that requires students to critically analyze the impact of all forms of discrimination against vulnerable communities, indigenous communities, and communities of color, while also analyzing social movements to challenge racism, sexism, antisemitism, islamophobia, and all other forms of oppression”; and 

WHEREAS, school board members in Contra Costa County, and around the country, have been targeted for harassment, bullying, and threats of violence by members of the public who have been misled by a coordinated, national effort to conflate Critical Race Theory with culturally relevant teaching or pedagogy, which the California School Boards Association explains aims to nurture students’ intellectual growth, moral development, ability to reason, appreciation of their culture of origin while developing fluency in at least one other culture, and the ability to identify, analyze and solve real-world problems, especially those that result in societal inequalities; and 

WHEREAS, members of the public have also been misled by a coordinated, national effort to conflate Critical Race Theory with ethnic studies, which the California School Boards Association explains, “is designed to highlight the often-overlooked history, experiences, and cultures of underrepresented groups, and to build respect and appreciation between students of different backgrounds,” and Governor Gavin Newsom on October 8, 2021, signed into law Assembly Bill 101 to require California students starting with the Class of 2030 to complete an ethnic studies requirement even while our school board members are facing what the Associated Press has called coordinated efforts by a “network of conservative groups with ties to major Republican donors and party-aligned think tanks” to engage in culture war fights designed to intimidate school board members so they can be replaced by radical conservatives;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Democratic Party of Contra Costa County salutes school board members for their courage shown in striving to provide our children with a historically and culturally accurate and comprehensive history education; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the DPCCC will organize an action plan to urge Democrats to fight the spread of misinformation about ethnic studies requirements and to support our school board members by attending school board meetings, participating in public comment periods, sending e-mail comments, and/or posting on social media expressions of support of our school board members.

Submitted by:

Craig Cheslog, Associate Member, District 5