Newsom gets bill on ethnic studies
It’s believed governor will sign legislation that is hotly debated
Will the third time be the charm for making ethnic studies a California high school graduation requirement?
On Wednesday, the California legislature sent Assembly Bill 101 to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Should he sign it into law, the state’s high school students, starting with the Class of 2030, would be required to pass an ethnic studies class to graduate. Ethnic studies courses would have to be offered at high schools starting in the 2025-26 school year.
The bill is the brainchild of Assembly Member Jose Medina, DRiverside, a former ethnic studies teacher at Riverside’s Poly High School and an ex-Jurupa school board member.
Medina
This is not Medina’s first go-round with the issue.
He first introduced a bill to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement in 2018, two years after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a 2016 bill requiring the state to create an ethnic studies curriculum. Brown vetoed an ethnic studies graduation requirement bill in 2018 and Newsom vetoed a second one in 2020.
“The third time’s the charm,” Medina said Friday. “I think the governor’s going to sign it.”
Getting the ethnic studies curriculum right has proved tricky. Earlier drafts were accused of being anti-Semitic and leaving out various minority communities. After four years, the state board of education approved a model ethnic studies curriculum in March. The curriculum looks at the histories and contributions of Asian, Black, Latino and Native Americans, along with lessons on Arab Americans, Jewish Americans, Pacific Islanders and Sikh Americans.
But criticism that earlier versions of the curriculum were anti-Semitic hasn’t completely gone away. On Thursday, the Amcha Initiative, which opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement on college campuses, called on Newsom to veto AB 101.
“Despite the efforts of the Legislative Jewish Caucus and some Jewish organizations, the reality is that there is no way these amendments can prevent anti-Semitic curricula like the first draft or even the more overtly anti-Semitic Liberated curriculum from finding their way into California classrooms,” an Amcha news release reads, in part. “The only way to ensure these anti-Semitic curricula will not make their way into classrooms on a wide scale is if the governor vetoes this bill, which we urge him to do.”
Medina noted Friday that the assembly’s Jewish Caucus supported the bill, as have many other Jewish groups.
But there are additional challenges to getting the bill signed, even since last fall, when Newsom vetoed the second version of an ethnic studies graduation requirement bill.
For starters, the governor now faces a possible recall Tuesday. He may want to avoid signing any bills that could spur critics to vote in favor of the recall.
“The recall election is almost perfectly timed to avoid controversy on pending legislation,” Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at the University of La Verne, wrote in an email Friday. “There is no incentive for him to signal either support or opposition until after September 14.”
And critical race theory, a graduate-level and law school theory that looks at how the U.S. legal system is shaped by and shapes race relations in the country, has been a hot topic on conservative media, often conflating other discussions of race or racism by educators with the theory.
Shortly after the bill passed the legislature, two of Newsom’s would-be successors attacked the ethnic studies program as critical race theory.
“The legislature just passed a bill to make CRT a graduation requirement,” Assembly Member Kevin Kiley, R-Granite Bay, wrote on Twitter. “Two years ago even Gavin Newsom called the curriculum ‘offensive in so many ways.’ ”
Kiley is vice chair of the Assembly Education Committee and a former public high school English teacher.
“My education plan ends the teaching of critical race theory in California,” Republican John Cox said in a news release that says that, if elected, he would veto Medina’s bill. “We need to get the politics out of the classrooms. Kids need to be in school learning reading, writing, math and other skills to succeed in life.” Medina dismissed that criticism. “Most people have been waiting a long time for this to get implemented,” he said. “All this discussion about critical race theory on the right is a red herring. It’s really irrelevant to this legislation and what ethnic studies is intending to do.”
Newsom has to sign bills passed by the legislature by Oct. 10 for them to become law Jan. 1. Last year, Newsom wrote that he wanted to sign that session’s version of the bill but was concerned that the in-development ethnic studies curriculum wasn’t yet sufficiently balanced, fair or inclusive. But he did sign a 2020 bill that requires Cal State University students to take an ethnic studies class to graduate, starting with the class of 2025.
Newsom is likely to sign the bill, at long last, according to Jack Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College.
“Newsom is likely to win big. The result is also likely to make him a heavy favorite for reelection in 2022,” Pitney wrote in an email Friday. “He has plenty of political capital and does not have to be afraid of such an issue.”
Medina said he also believes Newsom will sign his bill, based on prior discussions with the governor about earlier versions of the bill and conversations with those close to him.
“Good things come to those who wait,” Medina said.