The Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (ACES) is a Foster City, California-based group advocating for changes to California’s ethnic studies curriculum. The group supports what it calls “constructive ethnic studies” as opposed to what it calls “liberated ethnic studies,” which the group claims has been created by political activists to promote a “militant, anti-Western agenda, [that] polarizes students, and views history and civics entirely through a racial lens.” ¹

Among the group’s activities include filing Freedom of Information Act requests with school districts seeking information about their ethnic studies courses, and the group cooperates with other groups to publicize their findings. ²

Overview

Nonprofit manager Elina Kaplan and two other women founded the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies in 2020 after California enacted a law mandating the development of a high school ethnic studies program in 2016. In 2019, California released the first draft of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) and Kaplan opposed portions of the curriculum that supported the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, supported violent Black revolutionaries, favorably covered international communists such as Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, and opposed capitalism. ³

Facing opposition to the first draft, California revised the ESMC in August 2020 which critics claimed simply moved the controversial material to appendices and footnotes. California revised the ESMC again in December 2020 and reinserted some of the controversial material back into the curriculum. Meanwhile, the ESMC’s creators worked with California school boards to have the controversial initial draft enacted because there is no requirement to use the state model curriculum. ³

In 2021, California enacted a law mandating that high schools teach ethnic studies beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. ⁴

ACES supports what it calls “constructive ethnic studies” which it defines as “educating and building understanding, while tackling challenging issues through an analytic lens. Students are taught civic responsibility, exposed to multiple political perspectives, and encouraged to develop opinions based on inquiry.” ACES also opposes political indoctrination and using the “oppressed/oppressor” framework to describe race relations. ¹

Activities

In 2022, the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies sent out a nine-question survey to more than 1,600 candidates running for school boards across California. 134 candidates responded to the ACES survey. The questions asked whether or not the candidates supported teaching “constructive” or “liberated” ethnic studies, their views on the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, among other questions. In an interview coinciding with the survey’s release, ACES’s Elina Kaplan said, “There is absolutely nothing that poses as much of a threat to American Jews today as a liberated ethnic studies curriculum.” ⁵

In 2023, the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies lobbied the Mountain View Los Altos High School District to change its ethnic studies curriculum and to terminate its relationship with Acosta Educational Partnership (AEP), a consultancy firm which some advocates claimed was antisemitic. The school district agreed to end its relationship with AEP but did not change its curriculum. ⁴

In 2023, ACES opposed the San Mateo Union High School District ethnic studies curriculum, encouraging parents to send more than emails to the district demanding changes to the curriculum. The group claimed that the curriculum taught students what to think instead of how to think and pits people against each other based on identity. ⁶

In 2024, ACES filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the New Haven Unified School District over its Social Justice Academy summer program for third-through-sixth graders and uncovered what Defending Education called “an antisemitic slide presentation and lessons on Black Lives Matter, dehumanization, defunding the police, School-to-Prison Pipeline, privilege, oppression, and transgenderism.” ²

In February 2025, ACES joined with the North American Values Institute, formerly the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV), to launch the “Out of Many, One” ethnic studies curriculum. ⁷

Leadership

The founder and president of Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies is Elina Kaplan. Kaplan is an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, a self-described “lifelong Democrat”, and the former senior vice president of one of California’s largest affordable housing nonprofits. ³

Financials

According to ACES’s 2023 tax return, the group reported $65,403 in revenue, $83,016 in expenses, and $69,289 in net assets. ⁸

1. “About.” Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://www.calethstudies.org/about.
2. “New Haven Unified School District’s Summer Social Justice Academy for Elementary Students Includes Anti-Israel Presentation and Lessons on Privilege, the ‘School-to-Prison Pipeline,’ ‘book Banning’ and Transgenderism.” Defending Education, October 2, 2024. https://defendinged.org/incidents/new-haven-unified-school-districts-summer-social-justice-academy-for-elementary-students-includes-anti-israel-presentation-and-lessons-on-privilege-the-school-to-prison-pipeline-book-banning/.
3.  Benedek, Emily. “California Is Cleansing Jews from History.” Tablet Magazine, January 27, 2021. https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/california-ethnic-studies-curriculum.
4. Pendleton, Jennah. “Nonprofit Sues MVLA over Documents on Ethnic Studies Course.” Los Altos Town Crier, July 26, 2023. https://www.losaltosonline.com/news/nonprofit-sues-mvla-over-documents-on-ethnic-studies-course/article_02e8935c-24d9-11ee-a475-bf0f761535ab.html.
5. Torok, Ryan. “Survey: How Local School Board Candidates See Ethnic Studies.” Jewish News of Northern California, October 25, 2022. https://jweekly.com/2022/10/25/survey-how-local-school-board-candidates-see-ethnic-studies/
6.  “Ethnic Studies Debate in San Mateo Union High School District.” San Mateo Daily Journal, February 21, 2023. https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/ethnic-studies-debate-in-san-mateo-union-high-school-district/article_0090282a-acea-11ed-85fa-bf43ddbff2e0.html
7. “David Bernstein’s Push for Constructive Ethnic Studies .” Ayaan Hirsi Ali Foundation, April 3, 2025. https://www.theahafoundation.org/david-bernsteins-push-for-constructive-ethnic-studies/.
8. “Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies, Full Filing – Nonprofit Explorer.” ProPublica. Accessed June 29, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/854378125/202510749349200616/full.