Last month, the San Francisco Unified School District finally approved a new, perhaps final, version of ethnic studies curriculum for the upcoming school year.
The district’s approval follows years of controversy around the ethnic studies course. The district’s homegrown curriculum was offered as an elective for high school students from 2010 to 2024, but in 2024, when the district made the two semester class a graduation requirement, anger from some quarters ensued.
Critics, like the group Parents Defending Education, argued that the content of the curriculum, which discusses racism, sexuality, and gender identity, was inappropriate for a high school classroom, and objected to some excerpts from lesson plans shared with parents.
But a survey obtained by Mission Local found that students disagreed. An overwhelming 85 percent of students who took the survey at the end of the 2024-2025 school year said that they benefitted from taking the course.
Studies conducted by Stanford University additionally found that students who took the class were more likely to graduate and receive higher grades than students who did not enroll in the course.
Still, SFUSD in 2025 caved to complaints from parents and alumni groups, including the powerful Friends of the Lowell Foundation, and scrapped the course in favor of a new one: “Voices: An Ethnic Studies Survey.” After a year pilot, the district is planning to permanently use the new curriculum.
There’s still pushback. On April 28, the Friends of the Lowell Foundation sent a letter to the school board arguing that the new course is “unvetted” and “illegal” and have sought to meet with Mayor Daniel Lurie to urge him to end it. The mayor does not have control over SFUSD.
This week, Mission Local asked each of the San Francisco school board candidates whether they believe the district’s once considered pioneering ethnic studies course should have been reformed in the first place. This is how they answered:
Mission Local color codes the answers to yes/no questions. A blue background means the candidate answered yes, an orange background means no, and a yellow background means that the candidate answered ambiguously.
Phil Kim
- Job: Deputy director and chief of staff at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission
- Age: 35
- Residency: San Francisco
- Education: PhD in Education, University of California, Berkeley; master’s in urban education policy from Loyola Marymount University; bachelor’s in neuroscience from Bucknell University
- SFUSD Experience: Charter school educator, SFUSD administrator and current school board president
I strongly support Ethnic Studies and am proud of SFUSD’s long history of making Ethnic Studies available to our students.
This year, the Board of Education voted to adopt new Ethnic Studies curricular resources, and I supported that adoption. The focus now should be on implementation: ensuring educators receive high-quality professional development, supporting schools in delivering the curriculum effectively, and making sure families and students are aware of the course options available to them. Ethnic Studies should help students better understand themselves, their communities, and the diverse history of our city and country.
Endorsed by: Mayor Daniel Lurie, Senator Scott Wiener, Assemblymember Matt Haney, Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, San Francisco Democratic Party … read more here.
Virginia Cheung
- Job: Nonprofit executive
- Age: 42
- Residency: San Francisco
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine in social ecology
- SFUSD Experience: Parent of child at Alice Fong Yu, former director of Wu Yee Children’s Services
Ethnic Studies should continue evolving through regular community engagement to reflect the lived experiences of students and families and the multicultural, multiethnic history of California and immigration around the world.
Representation shapes who gets to lead, earn opportunity, and thrive. Students are more likely to succeed when they feel seen and connected to what they learn. We should ensure curriculum is culturally affirming, educators are culturally competent, and school leadership reflects the diversity of our communities.
Every child deserves to feel safe, seen, valued, and heard. Every child deserves a voice.
Endorsed by: United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Green Party, Supervisor Connie Chan, S.F. Public Defender Mano Raju, Phil Ting, Norman Yee, Eric Mar … read more here.
Brandee Marckmann
- Job: Director of parent-led group
- Age: 53
- Residency: San Francisco
- Education: Bachelor’s in English and French from Central College
- SFUSD Experience: Parent of SFUSD student
No, SFUSD’s homegrown curriculum was overwhelmingly popular and independent research from Stanford University showed it led to huge increases in achievement for many students.
The curriculum was created by SFUSD social sciences teachers and piloted for 5 years at three high schools before being adopted districtwide. Stanford researchers found ‘compelling and causally credible evidence on the power of this course to change students’ life trajectories.’
With SFUSD in a deficit I don’t think it makes sense to pay for an outside program when our curriculum has proven to lead to higher attendance, grade-point averages and college enrollment.
Endorsed by: Harvey Milk Democratic Club, SEIU 1021, Supervisor Shamann Walton, Supervisor Jackie Fielder, Dean Preston, Aaron Peskin, Mark Leno, Tom Ammiano … read more here.
Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at marina@missionlocal.com.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.
There are two kinds of truancy: in-school and out-of-school. The SFUSD has a problem with both kinds. We can continue to debate Ethnic Studies, but if students aren’t in their classes, we are wasting our breath. We need to hustle kids into their classrooms.
It divides people. We need to get all people to work hard, take personal responsibility, and treat other people equally as individuals in a colorblind meritocracy.
I think it’s divisive because it is biased to the left. Teach what went wrong, but teach we went from 4% to 94% for interracial marriage from 1958 to 2022, and are above 95 now. Teach that nonwhite immigrants from over 100 nations out earn whites by the second generation and in each case they study more hours, stay married more and marry before having kids more, save more, work more and spend more time teaching their kids, and do less drugs and commit less crime, a pretty good set of criteria to measure a human being’s content of character as made famous by Martin Luther King. If you study 20 hours and watch TV 10 you have better character than someone who studies 3 hours and watches TV 40, or plays video games. Drug use is another. Teach the progress we made and teach that the primary reason for poverty is personal decisions, not racism. If you analyze hiring, those who quietly gain skill and try to impress bosses and treat grades as very important thrive. Those who marry before having kids, stay married and reject drugs and short-term money wasting thrive. Teach how far we’ve come. Almost no nation in history has had 90% change their mind on something in 64 years.
Strongly support ethnic studies at SFUSD!
Our daughter’s most important and interesting class during her four years at Lowell was AP African American studies with Ms Maldonado. This gave her personal direction into her college path- political science/sociology, and she was really unsure what to pursue. We have to offer the widest array of possibilities to our children so they can find their place.
Let’s keep SFUSD interesting and innovative. We should not second guess ourselves and make our city a generic little town.
As a parent, whether or not there is an ethnic studies class is one of the last things on my radar when it comes to school board. Can they come up with a plan to retain SFUSD students past elementary? Can they help improve the lottery system? Can they make sure the budget stays on course? Can they provide ohallenges for kids who are ahead in school and bored? Can they improve the achievement gap and provide actual skill-building services for those with IEPs? That’s what I care about.