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EXCLUSIVE: A new report from a leading advocacy group alleges that a race and gender center at the University of Minnesota is supplying K-12 teachers with ethnic studies lessons that promote a variety of left-wing causes, including defunding the police, Black Lives Matter, and the dangers of “white supremacy” and “settler colonialism.”
The report, from the education watchdog group Defending Education, focuses on RIDGS, a University of Minnesota hub that builds materials for Minnesota classrooms with lessons themed around Black Lives Matter, the death of George Floyd, “radical capitalism,” and “settler colonialism.”
RIDGS’s Ethnic Studies Initiative explains on its website that it works “directly with K-12 teachers, staff, and students to ensure our programming meets their immediate and long-term needs.”
The report describes a course assignment that calls on students to create “protest art” for a “cause” that the students choose, and the students are given suggestions, including “creating liberatory art meant to make people feel safe in spaces that they do not already feel safe or welcome in.”
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A person walks on campus at University of Minnesota. (Glenn Stubbe/Star Tribune)
Some “optional” themes for the students include “Black Lives Matter,” “people over property,” “defund the police,” and “all power to the people.”
Course documents also include a “social identity wheel activity guide” that helps students figure out their different identities, including if they fall into a “privileged” or “marginalized” group.
Minnesota law, signed by Gov. Tim Walz in 2023, requires districts to offer ethnic studies at the high school level by 2026‑27, and provide instruction in elementary and middle school by 2027‑28. The state is currently building implementation plans in order to do this, which presumably would include the University of Minnesota.
“It is deeply concerning to see the University of Minnesota’s ethnic studies initiative working directly with K–12 teachers and students on ideological concepts like the guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement and exercises that ask students to sort themselves into ‘privileged’ or ‘marginalized’ groups,” Paul Runko, senior director of strategic initiatives in K-12 programs for Defending Education, exclusively told Fox News Digital after the report’s release.
“This goes far beyond teaching about history or culture — it’s about imposing a particular worldview in the classroom. UMN is yet another example of how political agendas developed in higher education are filtering down into K–12 schools, shaping what children are taught and how they see themselves and others.”
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Tim Walz speaks onstage during 2025 SXSW Conference and Festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 8, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)
The report from Defending Education isn’t the first time the University of Minnesota has faced scrutiny over promoting far-left ideology.
In 2023, UMN liberal arts professor Melanie Yazzie called for people to “dismantle” and “decolonize” America during a pro-Palestinian event.
In Defending Education’s report, campus emails obtained via FOIA request show faculty members circulating calls for anti-Israel demonstrations and seeking volunteers to “”honor martyred Palestinians” and describing the situation in Israel as a “genocide.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a university spokesperson said, “The University of Minnesota is steadfast in its commitment to the principles of academic freedom.”
Additionally, the spokesperson provided a link with more information on the university’s “approach.”
The spokesperson did not address questions about how this program would be vetted, if parents are notified or can opt out, or if the university condones or supports the messages promoted in the curriculum.
Reagan Dugan, Project Manager for Higher Education at Defending Education, called the situation “troubling.”
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Protesters in Michigan rally against President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI policies, denouncing federal rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. (Dominic Gwinn/Getty Images)
“Minnesota and many other institutions have framed political activism and divisive ideology as legitimate academic study under the guise of Ethnic Studies,” Dugan explained.
“However, courses focused on questions like ‘how indigenous feminists have theorized from ‘the flesh’ of their embodied experience of colonialism,’ and calling for students to “consider how indigenous women are articulating decolonization and the embodiment of autonomy through scholarship, cultural revitalization, and activism,” show their framing to be dubious at best.”
Dugan added, “UMN’s Ethnic Studies initiative is proof that the deeply divisive and ideological curriculum contained in Ethnic Studies is not just a higher education problem. By cloaking outright political activism in academic terms, the program aims to sneak divisive ideology into the state curriculum. Encouraging 6th grade students to embrace slogans like ‘Defund the Police’ has no place in our schools.”
