California Legislature Acts to Defend Diverse Textbooks
California lawmakers are debating nearly 1,000 bills during the hectic final two weeks of the Legislative session.
The Legislature passed a bill to ensure school curricula reflect the cultural and racial diversity of California and the U.S.
The bill would also require school boards to approve instructional materials that include accurate depictions of LGBTQ+ people and their contributions. It would ban school boards from rejecting textbooks because they mention the contributions of people with a particular racial background or sexual orientation.
It's an issue that has cropped up in many states. The issue garnered renewed attention in California when a Southern California school board, Temecula Valley Unified, rejected an elementary social studies curriculum that included materials mentioning Harvey Milk, a former San Francisco politician and gay rights advocate. Newsom threatened the school board with a $1.5 million fine. The board later reversed course.
State senators debated intensely on the bill. They took a "timeout" after Democratic Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, who chairs the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, said Republican Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh's comments about the bill were off topic. Republican lawmakers and Democratic Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil voted against it.
Ochoa Bogh said the bill wouldn't make sure that school materials would be age-appropriate for students. But Democratic Sen. Lena Gonzalez said school boards would still be able to make those decisions.
Later in the day, the state Assembly gave final sign-off on the bill, sending it to Newsom's desk.
Democratic Assemblymember Corey Jackson, who introduced the proposal, touted it as a chance to show the nation that California would be "on the right side of history."
"A yes vote means that not on our watch will these political class wars be declared and use our students and our children as pawns," Jackson said.
But Republican Majority Leader James Gallagher said the bill would overstep on local school boards' authority to approve class materials.