University of California Discontinues Ethnic Studies Admission Requirement
The California Department of Education estimates that the implementation of this new required course would incur an annual cost of $276 million, as per the UC Senate review.
proposal
to mandate a one-semester ethnic studies course for freshman UC admission.
and the $276 million required annually to implement the proposal throughout the state.
“School districts facing resource limitations may struggle to comply, which could result in approximately 5 percent of students—around 20,000 yearly—failing to meet UC admissions standards,” the agenda noted. “Making ethnic studies a graduation requirement instead of an admissions criterion would prevent unfairly penalizing these students.”
The proposal outlined ethnic studies as a critical, interdisciplinary investigation of racial, ethnic, and indigenous formations, as well as the structures of power.
“Rooted in a structural critique of racism and a commitment to social transformation, ethnic studies aims to generate critical understanding about power, inequality, and inequity, along with the actions taken by marginalized and oppressed racialized groups to confront systemic violence and institutional structures that maintain racial injustice,” the document stated.
UC Senate Review
.
Should it be approved, the proposal would be submitted to the UC Board of Regents for further review.
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The proposal would not have raised the count of the existing 15 minimum required courses; instead, it would have necessitated students to complete a one-semester (half-unit) ethnic studies course, as indicated in the agenda.
Currently, the A-G requirements consist of two units of history/social science, four units of English, three units of math, two units of science, two units of a foreign language, one unit of visual and performing arts, and one unit of a college preparatory elective.
proposal
to establish the ethnic studies course as a requirement for high school graduation in California was approved in October 2021, set to commence with the class of 2030, obligating schools to begin offering ethnic studies courses by the fall of 2025.
The California Department of Education’s estimate for creating this new required course stands at $276 million annually, based on the UC Senate review. This figure presumes the necessity for over 1,600 new teachers at an average salary of $83,000, including benefits, and accounts for indirect costs of $37 million and instructional materials expenses of $54.3 million.
The Academic Senate affirmed that the ethnic studies graduation mandate will only take effect if the California Legislature provides appropriate funding, according to the UC proposal meeting agenda.
Concerns regarding funding were discussed in a UC Faculty Assembly meeting on December 12, 2024, where members postponed voting on the ethnic studies proposal until this month, to allow these issues “to be more thoroughly addressed.”
Surveys conducted by the UC High School Articulation team in February revealed that of the approximately 2,300 California public schools with the A-G course list, 57 percent currently offer at least one ethnic studies course.
The regions of Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area, the two most populous areas in the state, skew this average, with 75 percent and 72.6 percent respectively.
Of the 640 California private schools on the A-G course list, 33 percent offer at least one ethnic studies course.
