The Anti-Defamation League has floated the possibility of a lawsuit if Vermont officials do not change state rules about ethnic studies curricula in schools.
The national advocacy group, which is representing the organization Jewish Communities of Vermont, is seeking to add language to improve the representation of Jews in Vermont’s school curricula.
If those changes are not made, “We do believe that there are legal remedies available,” James Pasch, the Anti-Defamation League’s senior director of national litigation, said in an interview.
Asked if that meant filing a lawsuit, Pasch said, “Correct.”
The controversy stems from Act 1, a 2019 law that tasked a working group with making recommendations on how to “increase attention to the history, contribution, and perspectives of ethnic groups and social groups” in Vermont schools.
That law specifically defines “ethnic groups” as:
“(A) nondominant racial and ethnic groups in the United States, including people who are Abenaki, people from other indigenous groups, people of African, Asian, Pacific Island, Chicanx, Latinx, or Middle Eastern descent; and (B) groups that have been historically subject to persecution or genocide.”
But the ADL and local Jewish groups and individuals have accused the working group of ignoring the second part of that definition.
In April 2022, the working group presented the State Board of Education with a draft of new proposed school rules. That original draft did not include the word “genocide” and defined an ethnic group as “a group whose members identify with each other based on certain criteria, including a common history, ancestry or culture, religion, national, social or geographic origin, skin color, language, and experiences of discrimination and social exclusion.”
Mark Hage, former chair of the now-disbanded Act One working group, said the task force arrived at its definition of “ethnic group” through extensive research and deliberation. Omitting the specific language of Part (B) was not meant to exclude anyone, he said. Rather, it was part of an attempt to draft a more comprehensive and inclusive definition than the statute used.
“We honor everyone, irrespective of their racial identity, ethnicity, nationality, religion, culture, everyone,” Hage said. “Everyone, we hope, will see themselves in this document and understand that our mission, our intention, our commitment was to protect all and to celebrate all.”
Hage said he was unaware that the ADL was considering legal action if the language was not changed.
The rules are currently percolating through the state’s rulemaking process and have been edited and changed multiple times. They are still not final.
The most recent posted draft says that ethnic groups can also be defined through shared “experiences of … persecution, or other inhuman treatment.” The draft also calls for “a critical examination of the experiences and perspectives of racial and ethnic groups and indigenous peoples that have suffered systemic oppression, marginalization, discrimination, persecution, and genocide within and outside the United States.”
But the ADL is still pushing for the original language of Act 1 to be included.
Jewish advocates are concerned that members of the working group “exceeded their statutory authority” when removing that language from the rules, Pasch said in an email. “There was specific legislative intent behind the definition of Ethnic Groups in Act 1, and that legislative intent cannot and should not be ignored.”
The rules, meant to foster more diverse and inclusive curricula and environments in Vermont schools, have been in the works for years now. That process has sometimes led to controversy, with friction over how the rules will apply to public and private schools and protect students from discrimination.
Jewish groups’ concerns predate the outbreak of the Israeli-Hamas War this month. But, Pasch said, the violence has led to a spike in antisemitic incidents across the U.S. — incidents that he said stronger education about Jews could help prevent.
The State Board of Education has received a flood of comments asking for the language to be reinserted. Among the commenters was Rep. Avram Patt, D-Worcester, who said he helped draft that specific clause in the original law.
“It is therefore puzzling, but also troubling and concerning that the language in Part B of what is now Vermont Statute … was omitted,” he wrote in an Oct. 5 letter to the state board.
Patt, the son of Jewish refugees from Poland, said his goal was to combat antisemitism and ignorance about Jewish history and persecution.
“As time passes, less and less people — and this has been shown in studies — even know that something called the Holocaust happened, or what the extent of it was,” he said in an interview.
Jennifer Samuelson, chair of the State Board of Education, said in a text message that a public comment period recently closed and that the board would soon begin considering the communications it received.
“With regard to the comments submitted by the Vermont Jewish community in the draft Education Quality Standards rules, the Board acknowledges their comments and will address them shortly,” she said.
