Today Senator Julia Coleman (Waconia), Lead Republican on the Senate Education Policy Committee, is raising concerns over troubling comments and missed deadlines by the ethnic studies working group.

“This working group is meant to be inclusive and representative of Minnesotans, but it’s becoming clear that their membership and work process is motivated by progressive idealogues and extremists,” Coleman said. “Rather than focus on teaching kids to think critically and come to their own conclusions, this working group is focused on writing standards that do more to divide than unite, and avoiding the public input with missed deadlines and just one month left before the framework is due.”

The working group is tasked with creating new standards of ethnic studies for Minnesota students with a draft available for review by Oct. 31. According to inquiries and reporting by the Center for the American Experiment, the working group failed to meet its self-imposed deadline for a draft framework being available for public comment between August 9-22, 2024.

Gov. Walz appointee Brian Lozenski’s past comments about overthrowing America because it’s irreversibly racist are under scrutiny in Minnesota and Lozenski previously wrote, “Ethnic Studies explores the colonial roots of the dispossession of Palestinian land and the creation of Zionism.” Both comments were made before he was appointed to the working group.

“These radical views should not be the standard for Minnesota students,” Coleman continued. “Since the working group has missed its own deadlines to release a public draft and allow comment period, I’m increasingly worried they will try to run out the clock and force these destructive standards on Minnesotans without thorough, broad, and public input from parents, school boards, and taxpayers.”