As a parent whose children attended San Juan Unified schools in Northern California, I was stunned to learn that between 2022 and 2024, the district accepted nearly $360,000 from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
This was not a small donation quietly placed into a general education fund. An investigative report by Defending Education found that the district’s relationship with CAIR appears to have included memoranda of understanding, ongoing communication with district staff, and programs connected to students.
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In one of numerous emails between CAIR and the school district cited in the report, CAIR representatives told district officials they had launched a six-week leadership development program at Starr King K-8 and hoped to expand it to other schools through a memorandum of understanding with the district.
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The report also raises concerns about student privacy. According to documents cited in the report, CAIR requested student names, and district personnel provided them. San Juan Unified’s own website states: “San Juan Unified does not collect or share information about a student’s or family’s immigration status. Student records are protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and are only released with a valid court order or subpoena.”
What makes this situation especially troubling is not only what it reveals about one organization and one school district but what it suggests about how such relationships are managed more broadly in public education. I served as the principal of an elementary school in the greater Washington, D.C., area for seven years. During my tenure, our school regularly partnered with outside organizations and private donors. Those partnerships benefited students and enriched educational opportunities. But such relationships require transparency and public accountability, particularly when they involve formal agreements, student programs, access to student information, or substantial sums of money.
Parents should not have to learn about these arrangements through investigative reports. They should be informed when decisions are made to partner with outside organizations or donors and should know who approved those relationships, what obligations were created, what safeguards were put in place, and how students were protected. Transparency is not an obstacle to public education; it is what parents have a right to expect.
Whether one views CAIR favorably or unfavorably is ultimately beside the point. When a public school district enters into formal agreements with an outside organization, receives hundreds of thousands of dollars, and permits programs connected to students, parents and taxpayers deserve a full accounting. Public trust depends on openness, not secrecy.
The details outlined in the report leave several important questions unanswered: What exactly was this money funding? What role did CAIR play in student programs? Who approved these agreements, and why were parents never informed?
These are basic questions about transparency, accountability, and public trust. The lack of answers would be concerning, no matter which organization was involved. The fact that the organization was CAIR only underscores the need for answers.
So why should Californians care about a public school district’s financial relationship with CAIR?
Because although CAIR presents itself as a civil rights organization, questions about its leadership, affiliations, and public statements have come under scrutiny.
Those issues have been examined by researchers at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. The researchers noted that CAIR-Ohio Director Khalid Turaani participated in an event that included Majed al Zeer, a Hamas official whom the U.S. government designated as a terrorist for his role in Hamas fundraising efforts.
Broader concerns about CAIR’s leadership and public messaging intensified after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, when CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad made comments that drew widespread criticism.
Awad said, “I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles.”
He also stated that Israel “does not have that right to self-defense.”
Awad’s colleague, Turaani, declared in March 2026: “I wish we get rid of Israel once and for all and that our region is safe.”
For many Jewish families, statements like these are deeply troubling. At a time of rising antisemitism, they raise serious questions about the judgment to partner with an organization associated with such statements.
Against that backdrop, the more pressing question is why a California public school district would enter into such agreements with no public transparency. That question becomes clearer when looking at what is — and is not — on the district’s own website.
After reading the report, I went to the San Juan Unified website expecting to find public information about outside funding partnerships and support for district programs. I found no donation page, no partnership section, and no explanation of how outside organizations can contribute to the district.
If that does not raise red flags, it should.
Parents are entitled to know when school districts enter into formal agreements with outside organizations, who approved them, and what role those organizations played.
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San Juan Unified should immediately release every memorandum of understanding, agreement, reporting requirement, and communication tied to this funding — and explain why parents and taxpayers were kept in the dark.
The public deserves answers in full daylight — and it deserves them now.
Reuven H. Taff, a past president of the Sacramento Board of Rabbis, is rabbi emeritus of Mosaic Law Congregation in Sacramento. His commentaries have appeared in CalMatters, the Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and other publications.
