![]() ![]() Jackie Gardner, a middle school science teacher in San Jacinto, has a rainbow LGBTQ+ pride flag hanging in her classroom but has friends in other districts who would not be able to do the same, she said. “Local control doesn’t give you the right to inflict pain on someone or even to threaten someone,” he said. Thurmond accused some school boards of using the state’s deference to local control as a way to hide “racism and hate.” The letter warned that districts that ban books could be asked to comply with the attorney general’s office to “allow it to analyze your agency’s actions and procedures.” Rob Bonta wrote a letter to superintendents and principals this month, putting them on notice about 1st Amendment protections and state laws regarding “representative and unbiased” curriculum. In Murrieta, school board members blocked the use of “Give Me Liberty! An American History” by renowned historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Eric Foner, in part because they said it negatively portrayed former President Trump.Ī Glendale Unified school board meeting led to protests and arrests over lessons on gender identity and sexuality. In the Golden State, our kids have the freedom to learn.” The move drew the ire of Newsom, who said in a tweet, “This isn’t Texas or Florida. “I think they’re just trying to put more sunshine on what the state is already doing rather than actually expand some sort of reach into school districts.”īut local school boards have broad power, and education officials at Wednesday’s hearing acknowledged that it is difficult to enforce policies for the 10,000-plus schools that span California.Īs Republican organizations work to get like-minded conservatives elected to school boards across the state, national political debates over issues such as critical race theory and gender are playing out at the hyper-local level.Ī school board in Temecula opposed using a textbook that mentioned San Francisco politician and gay rights leader Harvey Milk, who was killed in 1978. ![]() “This kind of hearing probably belongs in other states more than it does in California,” Kevin Gordon, an education lobbyist who represents superintendents, said of Wednesday’s event. In 2021, California became the first state to require ethnic studies as a graduation requirement for high school students. The state also has laws in place mandating comprehensive sex education and LGBTQ+ history lessons. You don’t get to erase basic facts around segregation, the Holocaust, or Rosa Parks’ story,” he said in a tweet directed at DeSantis - a consistent political foe - in May.Ĭalifornia approved “social content” standards a decade ago that require schools to portray “accurately and equitably” cultural and racial diversity and to avoid gender stereotypes. “You don’t get to rewrite history in a back room. testified in the state Capitol on Wednesday that they are committed to diversity and inclusion. ![]() Representatives from companies that produce school materials including the College Board and the Benchmark Education Co. “These are the California values.”Ĭalifornia pays textbook publishers nearly $500 million a year, Thurmond said. This is a commitment that we had 10 years ago and that we have today and that we will have in another 10 years,” said Sen. ![]() It is a commitment on behalf of the state of California. “The conversation today is not simply a reaction to what’s happening in our country. Nearly 77% of public school students in California are people of color, according to state data.Īlthough California is considered a leader in inclusive education, and already has extensive curriculum standards in place requiring diversity in school lessons, the first-of-its-kind hearing was a symbolic show of force by Democrats who control the state Capitol as GOP-controlled states including Florida and Texas have approved legislation to curtail some teachings. ![]()
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