Three days before the start of the 2024-25 school year, the San Francisco Unified School District sent an email telling freshman parents that their kids had been automatically enrolled in a two-semester ethnic studies class. The course — which covers such topics as structural racism, colonialism, and the relative merits of capitalism versus socialism — had been an elective for a decade, but families were now being told it had been made a requirement of graduation.
What parents didn’t know was that the day before, Lainie Motamedi, the school board president at the time, had sent a different email — this one to the district’s general counsel. In it, she noted that the board had never approved funding for the year-long requirement. Motamedi presented two options: The district could seek immediate approval from the board, or pause plans to teach the course.
Motamedi had been hearing from teachers about how the new mandate could mess with students’ schedules, and parents had begun reaching out to express concern. She was sure the budget didn’t include information on the new graduation requirement and had receipts to back it up.
