With a 6-to-1 vote, the San Francisco Board of Education late last night approved the school district’s new ethnic studies curriculum, putting it in place permanently after less than a year of evaluation.
Perhaps not surprising for an issue that has sparked fierce debate, rude behavior and shouting interrupted the board meeting before the vote.
During public comment, students who had spoken in support of the curriculum accused some adults in the audience of using their phones to film them. Board president Phil Kim noted that filming was permitted, but after more disturbance he and other officials ordered two adults to leave. District staff escorted them out.
“Students, just don’t engage,” said Kim, referring to one of the adults. “Don’t give her that.”
The woman in question seemed to plead her case on the way out, opening her phone and showing district staff her screen. The Frisc was not able to identify or speak with the ejected parties.
Students said they found the adults’ behavior unsettling. Some yelled “We feel unsafe!” and at least one shouted, “What the fuck?” Others said they were afraid of getting doxxed.
After the adults left, the meeting resumed. The board first considered other items, then as the clock moved toward midnight, they heard SFUSD staff presentations on the ethnic studies program. It was folded into an overhaul of the district’s broader social studies program; there would be no separate vote on ethnic studies.
The ethnic studies course, which the state requires for high school graduation, used a homegrown curriculum until this school year. But in spring 2025, critics began to circulate elements of the course as evidence that its creators were advancing their own ideological agenda. The district said some controversial material came from teachers, introduced without administration approval.
By the end of June, Mayor Daniel Lurie had called for “a thorough review of the process that led us here,” and SFUSD superintendent Maria Su pledged to replace the curriculum in time for the fall semester. Her staff found one replacement, Voices, and the board was asked to approve it in late July sight unseen. After procedural screw-ups, they had to hold a do-over vote a month later.
Su and staff called it a one-year pilot and promised a thorough evaluation. The board heard about that evaluation last night.
WestEd, a nonprofit working with the district, was first supposed to provide an audit of the course in November but delayed it to January. Its report said Voices shows “significant strengths in cultural responsiveness” — which SFUSD said must be a priority — but that teachers would need more help implementing the curriculum. (The Frisc spoke with teachers last fall who said they continued to use the old curriculum.)
The district conducted its own review as well. Some parents who participated told the SF Standard that their evaluations weren’t taken seriously by consultants in charge of the review sessions. Before her lone dissenting vote last night, Commissioner Supryia Ray cited that story. Before voting no, Ray tried to carve out the ethnic studies approval from the vote to overhaul social studies. Her board colleagues said no.
The district has added a compromise to the new curriculum. Starting next year, SFUSD students can opt out of the Voices course and fulfill the graduation requirement with other courses. The list is a work in progress but will include AP African American Studies and City College classes dedicated to specific ethnic groups.
This won’t likely be the end of the debate. Amid the district’s instructional shakeups this year, many students and families have raised concerns about access to elective classes. The state only requires one semester of ethnic studies, but the Voices course, as approved last night, is a two-semester commitment and takes up more slots in a student’s schedule.
“At some future point I would like a conversation around whether it’s one semester or two,” said board member Parag Gupta. “I don’t think right now is the time.”
