FAIR Washington is focused on K-12 issues, but we’d like to grow our volunteer base to tackle other issues, such as gender ideology. The more volunteers we have, the more we can do locally and statewide to promote fairness and respect for all. If you would like to get involved, email us at [email protected], or fill out the contact form at the bottom.
Chapter Leadership
2025 Chapter Action Plan
Challenging Liberated Ethnic Studies
Promoting Non-Ideological K-12 Education
Liberated Ethnic Studies is a divisive, partisan philosophy that divides us by our immutable characteristics and denies our shared humanity. Liberated Ethnic Studies is increasingly common in Washington’s K-12 schools. It is endorsed in the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Ethnic Studies Framework and in the State Board of Education’s (SBE) Resolution of Intent to establish an ethnic studies graduation requirement with an “explicit anti-racist lens” through which all K-12 classes will be taught.
FAIR WA has opposed liberated ethnic studies through our members’ citizen testimony and letters to the Professional Education Standards Board. Our members also gave public comments during SBE and OSPI meetings. Our FAIR WA Position Paper to SBE, which was sent to SBE, OSPI, and the Washington State Attorney General’s office, detailed our concern that a K-12 ethnic studies graduation requirement could potentially violate the state constitution.
Liberated Ethnic Studies in the Classroom
To find out what was happening in Washington’s K-12 classes, FAIR WA submitted public records requests to Seattle Public Schools and four other Puget Sound school districts’ for ethnic studies’ lesson plans, curricula, and other educational materials. Over a half-dozen dedicated volunteers reviewed and documented hundreds of files from the Seattle School District alone. If these materials are being used in the classroom, then Seattle’s school children (sometimes as early as kindergarten) are being taught to view the world through an “oppressed / oppressor” lens, and the most important thing about them is their skin color, biological sex, or other group identity.
Equally alarming, the Seattle materials show potential violations of:
- Constitutional protections of free speech and free thought
- The Washington State Constitution’s ban on sectarianism in public education
- The Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 28A.655.300 mandate for ethnic studies that prepares students to be “global citizens in a global society with an appreciation for the contributions of diverse cultures.”
On August 10, 2025, FAIR WA sent a Briefing Packet with exhibits to the Seattle School Board and key District staff asking them to meet with us in September 2025 to discuss its ethnic studies practices, and to implement accurate, non-partisan, and non-biased educational materials that celebrate understanding, fairness, and our shared humanity, such as FAIR’s new American Experience Curriculum.
The briefing packet exhibits are from the following two files, of many, we received from Seattle Public Schools.
Call to Action 2025 – You Can Create Change For Seattle’s School Children
We’re looking for parents and teachers who can share their experiences at Seattle School Board meetings, candidate forums, public meetings for the new superintendent, and for our hoped-for face-to-face meeting with the Seattle School District leadership.
Please contact us if you’d like to speak up for positive change in our children’s lives. We can provide talking points, trainings, and other support.
Call to Action – Create Change Beyond 2025 and Seattle
And, if you live outside of Seattle…if we can pilot this in Seattle, we can start bringing similar packets to leadership in the other school districts. Please contact us if you live in Shoreline, Olympia, North Thurston, or Northshore. We’ll be focusing on Seattle through the end of 2025, but there’s plenty to be done in other districts come 2026.
Please join us. We want your energy, ideas, and skills.
The more volunteers and local leaders we have, the louder our voice will be, and the stronger we’ll be at promoting quality K-12 education and basic fairness in our communities.