UCLA is defunding a program that trains educators to teach ethnic studies in K-12 schools, faculty alleged.
The Ethnic Studies Certificate Program – a collaboration between educator support program UCLA Center X, the UCLA Institute for American Cultures and UCLA Extension – provides training for teachers to develop and implement ethnic studies curricula in their classrooms, according to the UCLA Institute of American Cultures website.
Hundreds of UC faculty members signed a petition calling on Christina Christie, the dean of the School of Education and Information Studies, under which UCLA Center X is housed, to help preserve ESCP.
ESCP and UCLA’s Teacher Education Program, which trains aspiring educators on social justice and offers ethnic studies specializations, has collectively trained more than 400 teachers in ethnic studies pedagogy, the petition said. Ethnic studies courses have improved high school students’ attendance, graduation rates and probability of attending college, according to a 2021 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Your dissolution of this vital program would send a message that reinforces, rather than challenges, the top-down normalization of injustice,” the petition said.
UCLA Media Relations did not answer specific questions about the alleged funding cuts to ESCP, instead referring the Daily Bruin to a BruinPost about UCLA’s budget deficit.
UCLA is facing broader financial challenges, including a projected $220 million deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year, said Reem Hanna-Harwell, who became UCLA’s interim chief financial officer in February, in a March 26 campuswide email.
Hanna-Harwell sent the email more than a month after Stephen Agostini, the university’s former CFO, alleged to the Daily Bruin that UCLA had a budget deficit of $425 million because of financial mismanagement from current and past administrators. Chancellor Julio Frenk announced in a campuswide email that Agostini was out as UCLA’s CFO four days after The Bruin published the allegations.
[Related: Interim CFO says UCLA’s budget deficit is markedly lower than previous estimates]
The alleged funding cuts to ESCP also come after the UC Faculty Assembly denied the implementation of a first-year ethnic studies admissions requirement in April 2025, according to EdSource. The requirement would add an area “H” for ethnic studies to the A-G requirements that applicants must complete during high school for admission to the UC.
[Related: UC faculty delay proposal for ethnic studies requirement for incoming students]
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 101 in 2021, which will require high school students, beginning with the class of 2030, to complete a semester of ethnic studies to graduate. California was the first state to adopt such a requirement.
The curriculum is centered on the histories of four core groups – Black, Latino, Native American and Asian American communities – which have historically been underrepresented in traditional coursework, according to EdSource.
Eva Amarillas Diaz, an administrative specialist at UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women who signed the petition, said she believes the alleged defunding of ESCP is part of a larger rollback on diversity initiatives. Supporting ethnic studies programs is an investment in the future, she added.
“We’re seeing a lot of attacks from this administration towards diversity – ethnic studies falling under that – and it’s a real shame to see UCLA administrators side with the bully instead of standing up for their community and their community’s needs,” Diaz said.
The Trump administration has launched investigations into and threatened to withhold funding from higher education institutions that do not eliminate their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. President Donald Trump also issued several executive orders calling for the removal of diversity programs across federal agencies and private sectors.
The United States Department of Justice sent a letter to UCLA demanding that it end race- and ethnicity-based scholarships, as well as its diversity programs, in exchange for $584 million in research grants that it suspended in July. Multiple court orders have since reinstated the majority of the grants.
[Related: Proposed UCLA settlement from federal government seeks $1 billion, policy changes]
Vivian Hernandez, a doctoral student in history who signed the petition, said she does not believe the bill alone will adequately fulfill the state’s need for ethnic studies education.
“We need to have people who are adequately trained to teach these topics and these histories with the care and sensitivity that they deserve,” she said.
Hernandez said that as a student of color who attended K-12 California public schools, she believes cuts to ESCP would disproportionately impact marginalized communities and limit teachers’ access to the training needed to effectively teach ethnic studies.
Hernandez said she believes UCLA’s financial decisions do not align with its commitment to diversity.
“In defunding, it sends a very clear message that the university is bowing down, kneeling down to the current efforts to silence marginalized voices,” Hernandez said.
Diaz, an alumnus, said she believes ethnic studies education uplifts underrepresented voices. Ethnic studies classes challenge systemic oppression and empower students to understand crucial parts of U.S. history, she added.
Melina Melgoza, a UCLA alumnus who participated in TEP, said cuts to ESCP could also reduce support for educators who seek to improve the way ethnic studies is taught.
Melgoza, who taught ethnic studies in the Los Angeles Unified School District for four years, added that ethnic studies courses helped many of her students – most of whom she said were from marginalized backgrounds – develop the vocabulary to understand and describe their community’s histories and the world around them.
“It’s absolutely horrendous to think about a program like this losing support,” said Melgoza, who signed the petition.
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