AUGUST 19, 2025 NEWSLETTER
The THINC Foundation is dedicated to Transparency, Honesty, and Integrity in the Classroom.
Welcome to THINC Foundation’s newsletter! Releasing semi-monthly, it contains our views on key developments in Liberated Ethnic Studies (LES) in K-12 schools as well as relevant news articles and timely calls to action.
Moves In the Right Direction
By Mitch Siegler, Founder
Although much of what we read about public education is downright disheartening, we wanted to share a bit of good news from the past several weeks.
In New Hampshire, Governor Kelly Ayotte signed a state budget that bans diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in public schools.
In Arkansas, a federal appeals court upheld the state’s ban on teaching critical race theory — affirming that elected officials have the authority to put reasonable guardrails around curricula and paving the way for other states to follow suit.
Nationwide, references to DEI at school board meeting have plummeted.
These are just a few instances in a large country, but their confluence makes us cautiously optimistic.
Proponents of critical race theory and “liberated” ethnic studies will not go quietly. The New Hampshire chapter of the National Education Association, a few school districts, and left-wing interest groups are suing the state for its DEI ban. And activists continue to attempt workarounds by rebranding DEI, defying public records laws, and bringing political materials into the classroom on a piecemeal basis.
But we always knew that the fight against radical ideologies in K-12 schools would be a long one that requires constant vigilance.
THINC’s position is straightforward and commonsensical: We want children to be educated, not indoctrinated. Parents agree, as our nationwide survey of nearly 1,500 parents overwhelmingly demonstrated.
Students should be taught the value of hard work, merit, individual achievement, civic understanding, and pride in what America, for all its flaws, has accomplished through the contributions of all its ethnic and cultural groups. One-dimensional, identity-based pedagogy is actively harmful, as it breeds suspicion, resentment, and guilt — poor building blocks for a healthy, successful life.
In pushing back against critical race theory and DEI — which peddle fundamentally anti-American concepts like race essentialism and the oppressed/oppressor binary — states like Arkansas and New Hampshire are showing the way forward.
THINC is a nonpartisan organization. This isn’t about politics. It’s about preserving the integrity and purpose of public education and ensuring that our children have a solid foundation on which to build their futures.
THINC Voices
We wanted to share the two most recent installments of our THINC Voices video series.
Karthi Gottipati, a California high school student, explains how “liberated” ethnic studies teaches students that our differences define us.
David Smokler, a former longtime teacher and Executive Director of the K-12 Fairness Center at StandWithUs, explains that in a lot of cases, no one is vetting highly ideological material that makes its way into K-12 classrooms.
Liberated Ethnic Studies (LES) Activists in Their Own Words
We talk a lot about the LES movement’s extreme positions, but what does that look like in practice? Take a look at these quotes from prominent LES leaders.
“Mutual aid defies the hierarchies and white saviorism inherent to charity, instead asking us to share our skills and resources in order to decentralize community care, and help one another break free from capitalism and colonial authority”
- Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC), “Solidarity & Ceremony, Not Charity: Solidarity Work & Mutual Aid in Movements”
“Challenge imperialist/colonial hegemonic beliefs and practices on the ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels…Connect ourselves to past and contemporary resistance movements that struggle for social justice on the global and local levels to ensure a truer democracy; and…Conceptualize, imagine, and build new possibilities for post-imperial life that promotes collective narratives of transformative resistance, critical hope, and radical healing”
- Ethnic Studies Values and Principles, from the LESMCC’s “Solidarity & Ceremony, Not Charity: Solidarity Work & Mutual Aid in Movements”
THINC in the News
“Hindu parents raise concerns about faith's 'problematic' depiction in classrooms,”
Richa Karmarkar, Religion News Service
Support our Work
Our continued work depends on the generosity of people like you! Please consider making a contribution to THINC to fund our continued work to combat Liberated Ethnic Studies and advocate for more constructive education in K-12 schools.
THINC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is qualified to receive tax-deductible donations.
