Systems of Power and Oppression: Ethnic Studies and The Dark Side of Teachers’ Unions
Most parents assume the greatest threats to student learning are budget shortfalls or outdated curricula. Yet, the real danger may be hiding in plain sight: politically entrenched teachers’ unions.
Cloaked in promises of social justice and equity, these influential groups have quietly seized control of K–12 classrooms, steering education toward radical ideologies with deliberately deceiving names like ‘ethnic studies’.
Make no mistake—ethnic studies isn’t about whether students should learn an accurate, ethnically diverse representation of American history. This is something else entirely.
Beneath sanitized rhetoric about “teaching real history” lies an intentional effort to obscure the movement’s true origins: a fringe academic ideology deeply rooted in Marxist theory, racial essentialism, divisive tribalism, and activism aimed at dismantling America’s foundational principles.
At the heart of this fringe political movement to reprogram the American value-system are the teachers’ unions. Their agenda is ideological indoctrination, not education. And America’s students are caught in the crosshairs.
Isn’t Ethnic Studies Supposed to be a Good Thing?
Ethnic studies emerged from the 1968 student strikes at San Francisco State and UC Berkeley, led by the revolutionary Third World Liberation Front (twLF), whose name emphasized “decolonization in a US context.” Early supporters included seemingly contradictory groups like the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local Chapters 1570, 1474, and 1928; and the military wing of the Black Panthers Party.
These alliances transformed student activism into an ideologically radical movement aimed explicitly at anti-democratic and anti-capitalist “re-education.” Contrary to popular belief, this was not a grassroots civil rights initiative—it was a calculated political strategy.
The movement quickly drew international revolutionary attention, notably from Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). With Soviet backing, the PLO facilitated joint training in Algiers for militants from the Black Panthers and Nation of Islam. They shared tactics inspired by their newly created Palestinian oppressed-narrative-propaganda-machine, Castro’s romanticized revolution in Cuba, and other Soviet-sponsored global uprisings.
From this revolutionary nexus emerged three problematic concepts that persist today: intersectionality, ethnic studies, and the abhorrent fiction that “Zionism is racism.”
Recycled Russian Propaganda
Many of the original student activists subsequently became ethnic studies professors and influential union leaders, embedding revolutionary ideologies into educational institutions and union activities.
Much like Eugenics before it, ethnic studies was carefully crafted as a political tool. It’s designed to unify disparate communities using the concept of ‘intersectionality’ against a perceived common enemy.
The discipline reinvents history through neo-Marxist lenses focused on race-based power dynamics, explicitly aiming to create polarized social justice activists. It casts the American Dream as harmful, and preaches that Western society is inherently oppressive and ‘irredeemable’.
Using the oppressed versus oppressors paradigm to openly encourage hate for the “other” is classic Marxism, as is showcasing American democracy and Zionism as the ultimate enemy. Dehumanizing propaganda depicting both were first used successfully by Russia during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and were employed continuously throughout the Cold War. These themes remain core tenets of modern cultural Marxism and have since been packaged up neatly within the seemingly innocuous term ‘ethnic studies.’
Trade unions have always served as primary vehicles for propagating these ideologies to the masses, and today’s teacher unions are no different. Consequently, today’s educational institutions have been hijacked to teach the Marxist portrayal of American democracy and Jewish Zionism as the two main and interconnected ‘evils’ at the heart of all global injustice—evils that must be dismantled “by any means necessary.”
Ethnic Studies, Antisemitism & Teacher Unions
The original founders of ethnic studies went on to hold influential positions at the top levels of teachers’ unions both locally and nationally, and continue to openly and proudly acknowledge the discipline’s core, fundamental opposition to Israel’s legitimacy.
This troubling intersectionality of ethnic studies, antisemitism, and teachers’ unions is on constant display. In July 2024, the American Federation of Teachers endorsed over seven anti-Israel resolutions at its summer conference. In September 2024, the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) was publicly exposed by ICAN and JewsInSchool when footage from their August 2024 conference showcased blatant anti-Jewish hate.
In that footage, Guadalupe (Lupe) Carrasco Cardona—ethnic studies teacher, Chair of the Association of Raza Educators, and co-founder of the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium—laughed away allegations that the anti-zionism inherent to ethnic studies was somehow discriminatory towards Jews, stating: “They try to say antisemitism, which is really ridiculous… Religion has nothing to do with it.
Are you pro-Israel—’are you for genocide?’ And if anybody were to say, ‘Okay, sure,’ [well] that’s really not ethnic studies.”
Unsurprisingly, her viewpoint is both supported and celebrated by the California Teachers Association (CTA), since they awarded Cardona its Human Rights Award in 2022 despite the fact that she was fired in 2018 for promoting a “racist, Mexican-supremacist agenda” in her ethnic studies classes and curriculum.
In February 2025, antisemitic teaching materials provided by the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) were revealed during hearings in the Massachusetts State Legislature. More shocking than the materials themselves, was the absolute denial of the obviously antisemitic content by the teacher union representatives, many of whom identify as “Jewish”.
Most recently, teachers’ unions launched an aggressive smear campaign against California’s Jewish Caucus for daring to propose a new ethnic studies bill intended to implement content standards and classroom transparency—efforts the unions viewed as offensive.
Although the bill itself was flawed, lacking clear enforcement mechanisms, this did not prevent unions from mobilizing against it. They labeled the entire California Jewish Caucus “racist” for advocating oversight of ethnic studies instruction. Ultimately, the bill failed before it even reached a committee hearing, which the teachers unions claimed as a ‘win’ against the demand for transparency in K-12 education.
Teachers’ Unions: Systems of Power
In the past, unions focused on fair wages for teachers – but today, they engage in political and global matters that have nothing to do with the legitimate education of American children. They spend time and money promoting radical, ideological agendas, with influence that spans from school boards and state education departments to federal elections.
Their radical agenda became more apparent in 2019, when the National Education Association rejected a resolution to prioritize “student learning” and instead mandated the teaching of Critical Race Theory in K–12 classrooms. Since CRT is based on Ethnic Studies, this was a pivotal move ensuring the unhindered infiltration of both into American classrooms.
That decision triggered anti-CRT legislation in 28 States across the country, leading to vitriolic backlash that pitted Americans against one another and perfectly illustrated the outcomes ethnic studies seeks to inspire: dismantling America, subverting democracy, violent revolution, and anarchy.
At the same time in California, the experts chosen for the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Advisory Committee released their Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum – it went on to be vetoed three times because it was so biased, antisemitic, and bigoted.
If we take a closer look at the experts chosen for that committee – they sit at the intersectional political epicenter of critical ethnic studies, curriculum development, and teacher union systems of power. Most of them hold senior level positions in local, state, and national teachers’ unions, are card-carrying BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel) and Marxist Revolutionaries, are award winning curriculum developers and teacher training experts, and serve as elected and appointed politicians with decision making authority over school districts.
Notable examples include Theresa Montano (League of Revolutionary Struggle, Founder LESMCC, California Faculty Caucus Chair, NEA National Board Member, and LA County Board of Education Trustee), R. Tolteka Cuauhtin (CTA Member who wrote the book used to teach ethnic studies), Jorge Pacheco (former campus BDS and SJP leader, current Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee), Melissa Moreno (Yolo County Board of Education Trustee), Samia Shoman (TeachPalestine, MECA), Christine Hong (Anti-Zionism Studies founder), Angie Fa (former SF School board member and Democratic Socialists of America National Executive Committee member), and Dawniell Black (executive director, California History-Social Science Project).
When it comes to intersectionality, Marxist revolutionaries, and systems of power – this specific collection of individuals checks every single box.
If your goal is to maintain control over the K-12 ecosystem in California – from legislation, curriculum creation, and teacher instruction, to school district policy, oversight, and classroom implementation – then you couldn’t ask for a more politically powerful team of ethnic studies experts than the original authors of the California (liberated) ethnic studies model curriculum.
Opposition and Consequences
Anyone still claiming that ethnic studies is about “teaching real history” either doesn’t understand the origins of ethnic studies—or is deliberately ignoring them. Both are equally dangerous.
This ongoing attempt to neutralize the toxic goal of ethnic studies, especially by the organized Jewish community organizations, serves to simultaneously confuse the Jewish community as well as “trigger” the PhD ethnic studies practitioners and experts.
For them, attempts to redefine, reinvent, and repurpose ethnic studies is seen as not only offensive, but as proof that their ongoing strategy of ignoring the State and Federal laws, guardrails, and education codes is “justified resistance.”
When parents voice concerns, they’re directed toward the bureaucratic Uniform Complaint Procedure (UCP)—a process designed to discourage rather than resolve complaints. To date, despite dozens of lawsuits filed by Jewish parents against districts in the last year alone, there has been only one successful UCP case in the Campbell Unified High School District where antisemitic discrimination due to ethnic studies was confirmed. One case. How many were filed? No one knows – it’s information the CDE purposefully hides from the public.
Similarly, non-union-affiliated trustees who question ethnic studies face censorship attempts and outright cancellation spearheaded by teachers’ unions. State authorities largely ignore these abuses, despite ethnic studies prompting endless lawsuits, federal civil rights complaints, and forcing over 40 Jewish families in Oakland to withdraw their children from public schools due to toxic, antisemitic, and discriminatory environments ethnic studies created in classrooms.
California’s lax curriculum oversight process creates a vacuum, expertly used by unions to provide cover for ethnic studies pushers who charge exorbitant amounts for teacher training and “authentic” instructional materials to meet an imaginary demand that they themselves invented.
A Way Forward
The silent majority must speak up. The recent passing of the new antisemitism bill (AB 715) in the California State Assembly shows promise. The bill would prohibit school boards from allowing curriculum that would subject a pupil to discrimination while also changing the definitions of nationality and religion, ostensibly to strengthen these protections. But the teacher unions won’t give up without a fight. They oppose efforts to protect the civil rights of Jewish students, claiming this censors their ‘free speech.’
That position is unsurprising considering the teachers unions also oppose mandating teaching based on the science of reading in California, having killed two bills on this issue in the last two years. A new, watered down version making the science of reading optional is currently in process.
We must also call out Attorney General Rob Bonta for his failure to protect Jewish students—an unsurprising lapse, given his endorsements from every major teachers’ union – a conflict of interest with devastating consequences.
Ethnic Studies Isn’t Education – It’s Indoctrination With Its Own Lobby
The ethnic studies experiment is one of California’s biggest educational failures in history – leaving in its wake a path of destruction through communities and school districts where the discipline’s only measurable results are endless bouts of divisiveness, financial debt, abusive rhetoric, civil rights violations, hate crimes, and lawsuits.
In fact, ethnic studies has failed in all but one area – its only success has been in exposing the dark underbelly of teachers’ unions as a powerful, corrupt, money hungry, political machine that exerts absolute ideological control over the entire K–12 ecosystem.
It’s time to admit that teachers unions are the main ‘systems of power and oppression’ in our country. Sitting at the epicenter of endless educational failures for nearly a half century – these unions are responsible for a level of fiscal wastefulness that is mind-blowing when you consider the dismal outcomes and staggering, systemic illiteracy of entire generations of Americans.
And yet, these unions always emerge unscathed thanks to their powerful fiefdom, seemingly unburdened by oversight, transparency, or accountability.
Unless we dismantle this rogue system of power, we won’t fix the problem—we’ll only watch it continue to destroy our country, one classroom at a time.
Nicole Bernstein is the co-founder of PeerK12, a grassroots organization that is unapologetically dedicated to protecting Jewish civil rights in K–12 education through grassroots action, legislative accountability, policy advocacy, and legal enforcement. A mother of two public school students, she is a former high tech executive, and currently serves on her School District’s Equity Advisory Council.