Political activism, antisemitism allegations put public schools under the microscope
Public schools in both Philadelphia and Los Angeles are facing scrutiny over allegations that educators used classroom and student activities to push politics on controversial topics, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The cases have raised fresh concerns among advocates about the infiltration of political activism in education.
The House Education and Workforce Committee found in Philadelphia that district curricula endorsed "ideology justifying violent resistance and legitimize radical groups that incite antisemitism." Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the school district substantiated 11 allegations involving teachers at Canoga Park High School, finding that they promoted one-sided views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jewish Insider reported. The complaints were brought by the North American Values Institute, or NAVI.
"NAVI is very active in tracking what extremists are doing in education. And so, when we started seeing Code Pink do webinars discussing sort of what they were up to in Los Angeles County schools, we paid very close attention," NAVI Government Affairs Director Clifford Smith told Fox News Digital.
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"When we saw that they were making plans to basically directly insert, you know, very politicized... far, far, far-left propaganda directly in the classrooms, we wanted to act because we knew that, you know, at least according to the rules of the school district, that shouldn't happen," Smith said.
The Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) investigation found that high school teachers had been giving one-sided lessons on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a lesson on the "martyrs of Gaza," according to Jewish Insider. The outlet noted that the investigation also revealed that teachers had been recruiting students to join the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine.
Following the investigation, LAUSD adopted several corrective measures, including removing political materials from classes, restructuring curricula and requiring staff training on antisemitism and political advocacy rules, according to Jewish Insider.
Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the corrective measures did not address what he described as the broader culture behind the allegations.
"Legal remedies and corrective actions do not fix the root of the problem," DeAngelis told Fox News Digital. "Removing materials, restructuring some curricula, and requiring training marks a step in the right direction. Yet the underlying bias, ideology, and hostile environment remain embedded in the public school system as long as the same staff, the same culture, and the same monopoly persist."
Tina Descovich, CEO and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, said the findings in Los Angeles were "deeply troubling."
"Teachers actively pushed antisemitic viewpoints and anti-Israel prejudice on young, impressionable children," Descovich told Fox News Digital. "This should never happen in America. And yet not only is it occurring daily, but teachers unions are actively running cover for it."
Smith said the issue was not whether teachers discussed the conflict, but rather how they presented it.
"Now, I have no problem teaching both sides of any conflict. I do have a problem with anybody teaching entirely one side of a conflict without teaching the others or entirely one side of the debate without teaching the other sides of the debate," Smith told Fox News Digital.
In Philadelphia, according to the congressional committee, students were asked as part of a world history unit to create artwork that "embodies the concept of cultural resistance." The committee's report also stated that students were taught the definition of "settler colonialism," which was described as having "taken place across many areas throughout the world."
The committee also found that students were instructed to "honor" a resistance movement of their choosing. The list of movements provided to the students included the Great March of Return, a Hamas campaign that included deadly clashes.
In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, the School District of Philadelphia said, "Antisemitism has no place in our schools, and we take concerns about antisemitic harassment or discrimination very seriously, just as we do not condone or tolerate Islamophobia, racism, or discrimination against any ethnic, racial or religious group."
Additionally, the School District of Philadelphia provided a statement from the Board of Education to Fox News Digital, stating that it disagrees with the committee's report and remains "committed to fostering school climates where all students and staff feel supported and safe."
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During a September interview with the House Education and Workforce Committee, Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia Dr. Tony B. Watlington said that controversial topics had to be addressed in ways that are "age appropriate and consistent with our belief that we teach students how to think and not what to think."
For some Jewish families, the handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict expanded beyond the classroom and into the general school environment.
Nataliya, a mother whose children go to school in the Philadelphia metro area, told Fox News Digital that it was important to her that her children grew up in a place where they could feel safe being openly Jewish.
"Being safe as a Jew and being safe to be a Jew was very important to me because of my background," Nataliya, who is a Jewish immigrant from the Soviet Union, told Fox News Digital. She added that she and her husband agreed to live in an area with strong public schools where their children could be comfortable being Jewish. However, things changed after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel, according to Nataliya.
Nataliya said that two of her middle-school-aged son's teachers, who happened to be Jewish, claimed that they, independent of each other, opted for old Q&A sessions in their classrooms after Oct. 7 and both were reprimanded. She said the teacher informed her that they had been "told they were not allowed to say anything about October 7 or to answer any questions if they ask them anything."
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After that, Nataliya and her husband decided to move their son to a Jewish private school. They decided that their daughter would finish elementary school before moving to a private school.
Nataliya's decision to move her son out of public school is one that Sydney Altfield, CEO of Teach Coalition, said she is hearing from other Jewish families as well.
"When antisemitism is going on in public schools, students feel unsafe and we know this happens. Students feel unsafe there, and they flee to Jewish day schools," Altfield told Fox News Digital.
She explained that, while Jewish private schools, often referred to as "day schools," are expensive, communities and schools will often come together to help families with the financial burden. However, there is another cost that Jewish schools have faced: security.
"We found that schools after October 7 are spending over $400,000 a year on security funding. So all of these things add up... and it really is a domino effect," Altfield said. "When kids are feeling unsafe in a public school, and they choose to move to a Jewish day school, costs for that day school go up. Support for that community goes up. It's really a long-term effect, and we track all of this – enrollment tuition, security expenses, everything."
Altfield, whose organization focuses on private schools, told Fox News Digital that she did not think that antisemitism would reach these levels in her lifetime.
"We are living in an alternate universe of the world that I grew up in, in the world that, you know, we all want to grow up in," she said, adding that the issue of antisemitism is on both sides of the political aisle.
"We must do everything to stop it, and if that means we have to build more Jewish day schools to keep ourselves safe, then we're going to make sure that our community is safe no matter what," Atfield said.
Fox News Digital reached out to LAUSD for comment but did not immediately hear back.