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California became a national pioneer four years ago by passing a law to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement. But only months before the policy is to take effect, Gov. Gavin Newsom is withholding state funding — delaying the mandate as the course comes under renewed fire.

The pause has left school districts throughout the state in limbo nearly four years after the launch deadline was set. Beginning this fall, students entering 9th grade would have been the first class required to pass a one-semester class at some point during their high school years.

But under the 2021 law, the mandate to reach 5.8 million students does not take effect unless the state provides more money to pay for the course. The funding would cover the cost of materials and the teacher staffing and training that go along with adding a new field of study.

Newsom’s office, which will issue its May revision of next year’s proposed state budget Wednesday amid a tightening financial outlook, did not respond to questions about why he has not included funding for the ethnic studies requirement that he approved, praising it as an avenue to “teach students about the diverse communities that comprise California.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance answered on Newsom’s behalf.

“The budget doesn’t include funding that would trigger the ethnic studies graduation requirement,” said H.D. Palmer. As to the reason why, “the short answer is that the state has limited available ongoing resources.”

At the onset, $50 million in seed money was allocated statewide, but the law stated an additional unspecified amount would be needed in the future. State officials later set that amount at about $276 million. But several years have passed without state officials budgeting the funding.

As California’s more than 1,600 high schools wind down for the year, it is uncertain how many will offer the course in the fall. Some — including Los Angeles Unified, Santa Monica Unified and Alhambra Unified — will go forward with ethnic studies no matter what. Some of these districts, including L.A. Unified, already have their own ethnic studies graduation requirement.

Others — including Chino Valley Unified — will shelve the class until the law forces them to offer it.

Still others, such as Lynwood Unified, in south L.A. County, say they are deeply concerned about any wavering in the state’s commitment to the subject.

State funding would be “critically important for sustainability,” according to a Lynwood district statement. Without it, the school district is going to cancel the course and instead teach units of ethnic studies within other classes.

“We remain committed to the principles and purpose behind ethnic studies — ensuring our students see themselves and others reflected in the curriculum,” Lynwood Supt. Gudiel R. Crosthwaite said. “However, like many school districts across California, we are navigating the dual challenge of declining enrollment and insufficient state funding to support new course mandates.”

Renewed controversy

The current political environment complicates the launch of the ethnic studies requirement.

State officials were moving toward an ethnic studies requirement amid the nation’s racial reckoning after the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and violent attacks on Asian Americans.

Many ethnic studies supporters believe that anti-racist teachings and exploring the history and perspectives of marginalized groups — Black and Indigenous people, Asians and Latinos — are key to bridging misunderstanding among students, reducing racial and ethnic conflict, and motivating teenagers to pursue social justice causes.

But not everyone sees ethnic studies the same way. Some religious and political conservatives view the state’s guidelines for ethnic studies as the kind of “woke” ideologies in education that President Trump has vowed to eliminate as he seeks to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion programming in schools.

California’s ethnic studies curriculum guide embraces pro-LGBTQ+ content and speaks of connecting students to “contemporary social movements that struggle for social justice and an equitable and democratic society, and conceptualize, imagine, and build new possibilities for a post-racist, post-systemic-racism society.”

With tensions high over how race, religion and ethnicity are taught in schools, state lawmakers recently explored legislation that would have put strict standards on how ethnic studies could be taught. That bill was supported by 31 legislators and its sponsors expressed particular concern about how ethnic studies teachers are presenting Jews and the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — re-igniting long-simmering concerns about the field of study.

Amid weekend discussions, however, the group shelved the bill — which dealt only with ethnic studies. Instead, lawmakers unveiled a broader piece of school legislation aimed at ending campus antisemitism while providing greater “anti-discrimination protections related to nationality and religion.”

A hearing on the new bill is set for Wednesday.

Teacher Amber Palma talks with student Angel Alvarez during an ethnic studies class at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood.

(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)

Although the bill’s provisions are still being crafted, it would apply to any course or schooling activity — and include a mechanism for stronger oversight of K-12 ethnic studies, which remains central to the concerns of the bill’s primary sponsors, including Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay).

“Jewish families and children have been made, in many instances, to feel unwelcome or made the targets of hate and discrimination in school — where they’re supposed to feel safe and supported,” Addis said. “We want to get all the things in place to get back to what schools are supposed to be doing.”

Troy Flint, chief communications officer for the California School Boards Assn. said the ethnic studies requirement “has been fraught since its inception, and there have been starts, stumbles and restarts to try and develop a piece of legislation that’s amenable to all the different interest groups. … And I don’t know that we’ve reached that point yet.”

“School districts are in a bind,” both in terms of their costs and their academic program, he added, “because there’s a possibility a mandate could be implemented, but it’s uncertain.”

(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)

What’s happened since the law was approved?

Newsom signed the ethnic studies graduation requirement into law in 2021, giving districts four years to develop one or more ethnic studies classes, using a menu of materials and topics from the nearly 700-page state model curriculum guide, approved by the State Board of Education.

That curriculum guide had been a source of controversy — leading Newsom to veto an earlier bill for an ethnic studies requirement. After substantial revisions, the final version eliminated course materials that likened the Palestinian cause, in its conflict with Israel, to the struggles of marginalized groups in America — because critics said it lacked balance or nuance.

The revision also toned down what critics characterized as obscure academic jargon and bias against capitalism. More groups were added as potential study topics, including Jewish Americans, Sikhs and Armenians.

Under current law, the state’s model curriculum serves as a guide — not a required set of lessons. School districts are responsible for developing their courses and are free to teach units that reflect their enrollment. Students in Glendale, with its large Armenian American population, for example, could study the Armenian immigrant experience.

(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)

This flexibility has allowed academic experts in the field to prepare prepackaged courses and lessons that vary widely to help schools prepare. Some are free to download. Independent Institute, for example, has posted one free curriculum that consciously aims to be less controversial in terms of current political disputes.

The group with perhaps the most long-standing ties to the field of ethnic studies in California has created a curriculum called Liberated Ethnic Studies. This curriculum also is free to download, although some of its creators and supporters have worked as school district consultants.

A portion of the Liberated content guide has worried a coalition of Jewish groups who contend portions of the curriculum veer toward antisemitism. Their concerns have fueled ongoing debate in Sacramento about the need for stricter course standards.

(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)

Creators of the Liberated materials had been involved in writing the first version of the state’s model curriculum — which also was criticized by Jewish groups and legislators. State officials ultimately removed the Liberated academics from involvement in the state’s curriculum guide. And the academics, in turn, disowned the state curriculum guide and created their own materials.

A leader of the Liberated curriculum effort, Cal State Northridge professor of Chicano and Chicana studies Theresa Montaño, said she does not know how may school districts are using their lessons because they can be downloaded for free. She estimated that 70% of the Liberated content is virtually identical to the state’s revised model curriculum.

She said concerns about politicized content are overwrought.

“Ethnic studies was born out of a movement to begin to make certain that communities of color have the rightful location in the curriculum,” Montaño said.

She added that the scholars who put together the Liberated contents are recognized leading experts in an academically rigorous field that has developed over the last 60 years.

Students take part in an activity during an ethnic studies class at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood.

(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)

What’s happening in the classroom?

Ethnic studies teacher Amber Palma teaches at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood and virtually all of her students are Latino with immigrant backgrounds — and some degree of current political context is unavoidable.

“If the class is about your identity and your place in this American society — and that is a real social political issue that you are facing in context as we speak — you can’t say we’re going to not talk about what’s happening,” Palma said. “You have to address concerns, as you would with any class, with any kids.”

“Given our climate and the challenges that our students and their families and their communities are facing, I think we really do need to push the sense of empowerment, a sense of agency,” said Palma, whose district developed its own curriculum.

Students listen as teacher Amber Palma leads a discussion during an ethnic studies class at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood.

(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)

“If done right, ethnic studies is a good thing for all students,” said David Bocarsly, executive director of Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, a lobbying group whose positions include supporting Israel’s right to exist. “Unfortunately … we have seen far too many instances of factually inaccurate and antisemitic content entering classrooms,” he said.

Bocarsly said members of his coalition of Jewish groups estimate there are real or potential problems in several dozen school districts among the 1,000 in California, based on issues that have emerged. The extent to which the Liberated curriculum is used in these districts has not been determined.

Assemblymember Addis is concerned that there could be inappropriate elements of Liberated’s alleged bias affecting “hundreds and hundreds” of school districts up and down the state.

In April, the California Department of Education concluded that two Bay Area ethnic studies teachers in the Campbell Union High School District violated California law when they included content related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was allegedly biased and discriminated against Jewish students.

How are school districts responding?

A winter clash in the Palo Alto, Calif., school district underscores the kinds of debates that have unfolded about the course.

In a district with 40% Asian enrollment, some complained the course defined power and privilege in a way that discounted the hard work that resulted in prosperity for many immigrants. Critics also accused district officials of a lack of transparency and of not allowing for meaningful input into course content. Some were concerned that topics would be divisive.

“As feared, rancor has ensued,” said Lauren Janov, a critic of the Liberated curriculum and co-founder of Palo Alto Parent Alliance. “From the start, the state lost control of ethnic studies.”

In January, the Palo Alto board approved its own ethnic studies requirement by a 3-2 vote.

In February, Santa Ana Unified shelved three ethnic studies classes as part of a legal settlement reached with a coalition of Jewish groups. The groups had filed a lawsuit alleging that secrecy and antisemitism defined the district’s ethnic studies rollout.

The district still offers various other ethnic studies courses and has no plans to reverse policy, regardless of state funding, a district spokesperson said.

Student Arianne Moreno distributes an assignment during an ethnic studies class at Firebaugh High School in Lynwood.

(Hon Wing Chiu / For The Times)

In San Bernardino County, the Chino Valley Unified school board president also raises cost as an issue but sees the mandate pause as an opportunity to step back from ethnic studies.

“We made it clear that the course will not be implemented unless the state mandate goes into effect,” said Sonja Shaw, a pro-Trump Republican who is running for state superintendent of public instruction.

“Much of the ethnic studies already being pushed reflects divisive, politically driven ideology that doesn’t unite students; it separates them. …While kids are falling behind in reading, writing and math, the state continues to push its political agendas onto children,” Shaw said.

In Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school system, 11 courses can satisfy the district’s requirement, including a broad survey course and more specialized classes, such as African American Literature, American Indian Studies and Exploring Visual Arts through Ethnic Studies.

PALM SPRINGS — In a ballroom packed with more than 1,000 people raising money for LGBTQ+ youths, veteran California legislative leader Toni Atkins didn’t mince words: To be a gay or transgender teenager right now, she said, must feel like “a rug has been pulled from beneath your feet.”

In her fiery speech at the annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast, Atkins, who is running for California governor, said President Trump and other Republicans are working to “legislate our trans siblings out of public life.”

“These aren’t just political stunts: These are acts that put lives in danger and strip away basic human dignity,” Atkins said. “So hear me, as I say: Trans people belong. Trans youth deserve love, joy and our protection.”

Atkins’ speech, which drew rousing applause, offered a glimpse of how Trump’s efforts to undermine California’s liberal values — including support for transgender Americans — will be at the heart of the state’s 2026 campaign for governor.

In his first 100 days, Trump issued executive orders banning trans women from women’s sports and barring the federal government from recognizing genders other than male or female.

Trump is also pushing to ban transgender Americans from the U.S. military, writing in an executive order that transgender identity is a “falsehood” inconsistent with the “humility and selflessness required of a service member.” The Supreme Court cleared the way last week for that ban to take effect.

“Cruelty, and an attempt to humiliate, seems to be the point of what they are doing,” said Lisa Middleton, a transgender woman and former mayor of Palm Springs.

The LGBTQ+ community has become a political force in shaping statewide policy and campaigns.

Other top Democrats running to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom have also voiced strong support for LGBTQ+ rights, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Controller Betty Yee and Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

About 2.8 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people live in California, more than in any other state, and Californians overwhelmingly support laws that protect the LGBTQ+ community, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Last year, California voters overwhelming passed a ballot measure to enshrine the right to same-sex marriage into the state Constitution. A proposed ballot initiative that would have limited transgender youth medical care and required schools to notify parents about their child’s gender identity failed to get enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Polling by the Los Angeles Times last year found that more than 3 in 4 Americans see issues related to transgender and nonbinary people — which affect a fraction of the American population — as a distraction from more pressing policy matters.

“It is a trap that conservatives are utilizing to distract from the real issues at hand,” said Evan Low, a former California Assembly member and the new president of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund.

Atkins, a former state Senate president pro tempore, former Assembly speaker and the only gay major candidate in the governor’s race, said in an interview that she’s “mindful that as a woman and as a member of the gay community, what I do matters.” She said she supported the bill passed by the California Legislature a decade ago that allows students to play on sports teams that match their gender identity.

“This administration is using that as a weapon and politicizing it,” Atkins said. “That’s just cruel.”

An Associated Press poll found in early May that Trump’s handling of transgender issues is more popular with Americans than his job performance overall. And polling done in January by the New York Times found that nearly 80% of Americans, including more than two-thirds of Democrats, opposed the idea of trans women competing in women’s sports.

“The Democrats, who are trying to find their voice on so many things right now, don’t know how to handle it,” said Hank Plante, a political journalist and former fellow at the USC Center for the Political Future who lives in Palm Springs with his husband. “They want to be true to their base and to their principles of equal rights. But at the same time, it’s a loser politically when you start talking about nonconforming gender issues and young people.”

One of the Trump campaign’s most bruising attack ads last fall showed a clip of former Vice President Kamala Harris saying she would support gender-transition surgery for inmates in California’s prisons, then concluded with: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

“She didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating,” Newsom said on a recent episode of his podcast. “Brutal. It was a great ad.”

On the same episode, Newsom told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk that it was “deeply unfair” for transgender girls to play on girls’ sports teams. Newsom previously supported a California law signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown that allowed trans students to compete in sports and use bathrooms based on their gender preference.

The uproar that followed Newsom’s comments underscored the complexities Democrats face on the issue, with some Democrats alleging that Newsom strategically abandoned a vulnerable group of people to prepare for a future presidential run.

Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward (D-San Diego), the chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, said the governor’s remarks left him “profoundly sickened and frustrated.”

But Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, one of the best-known Republicans running for governor, said he agreed with Newsom — and, if elected, would sign an executive order banning “boys competing in girls’ sports.”

Ron deHarte, the first gay Mexican American mayor of Palm Springs, warned in his speech at the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast that the LGBTQ+ community and its allies will “march with greater fervor — we will do more than ever before.”

“If you are a member of the military — transgender or not — if you are willing to fight for me, then I must be willing to fight for you,” deHarte told the crowd.

In an interview, deHarte said that elected officials are now facing an ethical test over whether to speak out against Trump administration policies that they see as hurting their communities, at the risk of losing federal funding.

He said all eyes are on Maine, where the Trump administration stopped all federal education funding after Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, refused to comply with Trump’s directive to ban trans girls from girls’ sports.

“It’s a challenging line to walk,” deHarte said. “You have to make sure you have not only the right moral standing, but the right legal standing too.”

Since Trump’s inauguration, federal officials have targeted California over laws aimed at protecting trans students.

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating the California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees sports at more than 1,500 high schools, and the California Department of Education over a law that bars schools from automatically notifying families about issues related to students’ gender identities.

Gay and trans high school students right now are experiencing fear that is “like being a little more closeted,” said Delana Martin-Marshall, 38, an art teacher at A.B. Miller High School in Fontana.

She and her wife, a physical education teacher at the school, drove a dozen students from the school’s gay-straight alliance in two vans to the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast.

“Students are really scared,” she said. “Scared of being themselves.”

There’s little that state-level officials can do to reverse decisions from the White House on issues like military eligibility and passports, but the state can still be a refuge for gay and trans students, attendees said, including shoring up funding and legal protections for gender nonconforming students and for gay couples.

“The state has to prepare for what’s coming,” Plante said. He pointed to Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion when the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, which said that the court “should reconsider” past rulings codifying Americans’ rights to contraception, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.

Christopher Martinez, 32, attended the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast with fellow students from College of the Desert who said they hope the next governor will focus on the day-to-day issues that affect transgender and gay college students, including the rising cost of living and housing insecurity.

“Everything is getting really expensive,” Martinez said.

In recent days, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided at least nine restaurants in the nation’s capital, requesting proof that the establishments are not employing people illegally. Washington, D.C., long presented itself as a “sanctuary city,” so the mere fact ICE agents targeted a few businesses there is hardly surprising.

What is perhaps more newsworthy is the boldface names associated with those restaurants: Geoff Tracy, the husband of CBS News anchor and former vice presidential debate co-moderator Norah O’Donnell; former Biden White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients; and the activist restaurateur José Andrés.

Following the raids, a predictable debate has unfolded: Did the Trump administration politicize law enforcement by siccing ICE agents on the White House’s critics and foes?

Maybe; maybe not. Regardless, and with all due respect: I simply do not care. And I highly suspect tens of millions of other Americans don’t care either. After years of politicized law enforcement, many of us are now sufficiently jaded so as to be well past the point of shock at new examples.

Did the people who are aghast at these ICE raids express similar dismay when, in 2013, Obama-era IRS director Lois Lerner admitted to targeting conservative groups in an attempt to improperly strip them of their tax-exempt status? Did they care when the nuns of the Little Sisters of the Poor sued the Obama administration over contraception coverage?

Did the pearl-clutchers care when the Biden administration sued antiabortion activists for praying outside abortion clinics? Did they care when the same administration threw the book at too many Jan. 6 defendants — whether an organizer or a tourist? Did they care when that administration imprisoned Trump allies Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for rejecting subpoenas of the made-for-TV Jan. 6 House committee? Above all, did they care when that administration crossed the ultimate Rubicon by prosecuting its preeminent political opponent, the then-former president and leading presidential hopeful?

The answer to all these rhetorical questions is simple: No. Of course they didn’t care. So, you’ll have to spare me for not viewing it as a particularly big deal that a few Washington restaurants had the feds show up to request immigration papers.

In fact, it would be a good thing if the Trump administration sent a message by targeting political enemies.

Not because two wrongs make a right, but because unilateral disarmament in the face of an insatiable foe is a proven strategic failure. People on the right had their turn being targeted under Presidents Biden and Obama, and it would be folly for conservatives to take a high road now that they are in power.

True, a prior generation of Republicans would have been content to morally preen, to rest on their laurels in “principled loserdom.” But those days are over.

Indeed, those days must be over — not merely for the good of the right, but for the good of the country. American law enforcement has become much more politicized in recent decades. That trend began with the Obama administration, and it accelerated under Biden.

Patriotic Americans who care about the rule of law and our constitutional order ought to lament this sordid state of affairs — not just the latest twist in the long-running saga, but the whole sad story. The key question, then, is how to undo the damage and restore left-right prosecutorial and law enforcement relations to the pre-Obama status quo ante.

The only way out is through. Both sides of America’s political divide must come to accept a Cold War-era paradigm of mutually assured destruction. This mindset saved the planet from nuclear holocaust once, and now it can help us return our domestic politics to something resembling normalcy.

But for the left to accept that the current approach ensures mutually assured destruction, they’re going to have to first see the other side bare its fangs a bit. Some noses must be (proverbially) bloodied. And frankly, given the unprecedented magnitude of the past few years’ lawfare campaign against President Trump, sending ICE agents into a few restaurants barely even registers.

I want an end to the “politicized law enforcement” wars. So should you. It is ironic that we need a short-term escalation in order to have a chance of reaching a long-term stasis. But it’s the cold, hard truth.

Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. @josh_hammer