The Californians for Equal Rights Foundation filed a civil rights complaint in February against a California school district known for implementing a “Woke Kindergarten” program. The complaint alleged that Hayward Unified School District retaliated against a whistleblower who criticized the district for spending federal funds on left-wing indoctrination programs instead of programs meant to improve student academic performance, as many students are not proficient in reading or math.
“Three courageous and fed-up HUSD employees had contacted CFER for support and given us all the training materials,” CFER said. “To help defend their constitutional rights to equal protection and free speech while protecting the whistleblowers’ anonymity in fears of personal retributions, CFER has filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of them against the HUSD with the Alameda County Office of Education and the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.”
The complaint maintained that the school district looked to silence any dissenters or those who disagreed with the program. CFER claimed that the program and subsequent alleged retaliation violated numerous federal and state laws.
“HUSD is engaged in unlawful discrimination against its employees through a series of biased and hostile professional development programs,” CFER’s complaint reads. “HUSD’s years-long and ongoing implementation of race-based training programs under the banner of “anti-bias anti-racism” (AB/AR) violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Article I Section 31 (a) of the California Constitution, state anti-discrimination laws and Board policies.”
The program cost the district $250,000 in federal funds that were allocated “to help the country’s lowest-performing schools boost student achievement,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. However, student performance is actually worse after “Woke Kindergarten” than before it. At one of the schools in the district that received these funds to implement “Woke Kindergarten,” less than “12% of students can read at grade level,” and “under 4% are proficient in math.”
It features radical left-wing sociopolitical principles meant to indoctrinate students at a young age. According to its website, Woke Kindergarten is a “global, abolitionist early childhood ecosystem and visionary creative portal supporting children, families, educators and organizations in their commitment to abolitionist early education and pro-black and queer and trans liberation.”
With “Woke Kindergarten,” there is no concern to educate students on legitimate subjects that will help increase academic performance. The program only mentions radical propaganda that is the contemporary equivalent to the kind of indoctrination taught at Stalinist youth groups in the Soviet Union.
“Over 80% of students in Hayward Unified can’t do math at the grade level and less than 30% are proficient in English,” Wenyuan Wu, the executive director of CFER, told me. “Instead of providing professional training to improve academic performance, the school district has forced its teachers and staff into these dogmatic reeducation camps. Compelling the staff to condemn white supremacy, dissect their social identities and partake in racial affinity groups is a waste of their time and a waste of taxpayer money. Worse, the ABAR training unfairly discriminates based on race and creates a hostile work environment.”
“The fact that the training sessions have been conducted in a span of four years (are still ongoing) speaks to the institutionalized nature of ideological hijacking,” Wu said. “We are fighting to put an end to this divisive and offensive scheme.”
What is happening at Hayward Unified School District is an example of what is going on in school districts throughout the country. They abuse funds meant to help improve student academic performance so they can manipulate and mold their minds to align with their ideological belief system instead. No students in such failing schools or districts will ever have fair and equal opportunity at scholastic success so long as teachers, teachers unions, and other educrats hijack the education system and use it for indoctrination instead of education.
