EVENT: Empowered Ed Leadership Summit

Hosted in Sacramento Oct 27-29 by Coalition for Empowered Education

Oct 25, 2024

Event

EMPOWERED ED LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

Hosted in Sacramento Oct 27-29 by Coalition for Empowered Education

Editors’ note: A multi-ethnic coalition, including FBT and many others, comes together in Sacramento, CA from October 27-29 to fight politicized and destructive educational curricula and to seek to empower students, promote critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, and mutual respect instead of divisiveness. Hosted by Coalition for Empowered Education.

The Empowered Ed Leadership Summit, running from October 27-29 in Sacramento, brings together thought leaders, organizations, and other stakeholders for a series of interactive workshops, panels, and working groups. Together, we will collaborate on creating tangible initiatives to depoliticize the classroom.

The Coalition for Empowered Education (CEE), a coalition of educators, parents, and community members, was started to counter the spread of ideological curricula in K-12 schools across the country and to promote the values of critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, and mutual respect in the classroom. CEE works to ensure the curricula chosen by districts are inclusive and empowering, not politicized and destructive.

The coalition consists of organizations across the political, ethnic, racial, and religious spectrum—including Free Black Thought (FBT), Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York (CACAGNY), Hindu American Foundation (HAF), California Foundation for Equal Rights (CFER), Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI), Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE), and Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) among others. These organizations united in 2023 in opposition to radical agendas in the classroom.

CEE emphasizes building bridges of understanding, celebrating the accomplishments of diverse groups, and exposing students to multiple perspectives. CEE believes students should be taught civic responsibility and encouraged to develop opinions based on free inquiry rather than one-sided and/or compelled speech. CEE’s guiding principles specifically oppose political indoctrination.

Dr. Brandy Shufutinsky, who holds an EdD in International and Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco, says, “Ideological agendas pollute classrooms with extremist, politically motivated views, disguised as ‘education.’ When teachers advocate radical political ideology, it damages intellectual development and leaves students ill-prepared. We believe students deserve an environment where they can grapple with our nation’s messy history.”

Dr. Erec Smith, co-founder and president of FBT, says, “the ideological agenda peddled by Liberated Ethnic Studies divides students by racial, ethnic, and religious identities. Instead of encouraging the free exchange of ideas, Liberated Ethnic Studies curricula distracts, misinforms, and propagates political dogma. We believe ethnic studies can and must empower students without imposing one specific ideology and without teaching them what to think, but how to think in various ways.”

Elina Kaplan, President of Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (ACES), states, “Extremism is poisoning K-12 curricula, often in classes such as ethnic studies, US history, and world history. We are proud to be part of this broad, multi-ethnic coalition, which is working to depoliticize the classroom, center students, not ideology, and enable them to learn about themselves and each other—in empowering, constructive ways.”

In 2023, a coalition member, the Institute for Liberal Values, released a report detailing the extreme views of the activists behind Liberated Ethnic Studies and their ties to radical organizations, Union del Barrio (UDB) and the Association of Raza Educators (ARE).

Since its beginning, the Coalition for Empowered Education has been developing curricula and teacher and student training that brings back core educational values of critical thinking, curiosity, and respect to replace pedagogies that undermine children’s education, generate divisiveness, and tear at the fabric of our democratic society.