Philadelphia’s public school curriculum is under fire as parents accuse the city’s schools of promoting anti-Semitism and anti-American radicalism while Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro refuses to act. Parents report that since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, school officials have defended terrorism, praised cop killers, and called the United States a “criminal Amerikan empire.”
Despite repeated meetings with Shapiro’s staff, parents say the governor has failed to investigate or discipline teachers promoting violent, anti-Israel, and anti-police rhetoric. “Let’s just be very clear, [Shapiro’s staffers] have done nothing,” one parent stated. Another added, “They heard firsthand the horrors that are going on… and nothing has happened to address or fix it.”
Teachers like Ismael Jimenez, Hannah Gann, and Keziah Ridgeway have openly spread Hamas propaganda and anti-American messages. Jimenez denied Hamas kidnapped Israelis on Oct. 7 and called Israel a “racist apartheid theocracy.” Gann screamed “F— the police until Palestine is free,” and Ridgeway likened Israel’s actions to “gas chambers.”
The district’s curriculum, developed under Jimenez, eliminates basic American history—including the Constitution and the Revolutionary War—and replaces it with Marxist ideology. The U.S. History course claims “[r]ace and racism have historically played a significant role in shaping American foreign policy,” while 12th-grade classes focus on “intersectionality” and “antiracism” as primary political filters.
Clifford Smith of the North American Values Institute called Philadelphia “the worst” in the country for radical anti-Semitic education. One parent said the schools are “proudly indoctrinating and grooming their students to hate. To hate Jews, hate Israel… hating police, using violence as an option.”
The city’s education system, once meant to build informed citizens, now fuels division. “It’s one thing to have your own political views,” Smith said. “It’s another to overtly praise cop killers and FBI fugitives.”
