SACRAMENTO, California (Press Release) — The California Legislative Jewish Caucus released the following statement Wednesday, Sept. 8, regarding the Ethnic Studies Bill:
“Today, the Legislature voted to advance Assembly Bill (AB) 101, legislation that would make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement in the State of California. This legislation enjoys broad support in the Legislature and is a top priority for our allies in the Latino, Black, Asian Pacific Islander (API), and Native American Legislative Caucuses. It is our sincere hope that this course will provide an opportunity for young Californians to deepen their understanding of our society’s complex history when it comes to issues of race and diversity, and we would like to recognize Assemblymember Jose Medina for his persistent leadership on this important issue.”
“We are also grateful that AB 101 includes important clarifying amendments that address concerns raised by the Jewish community. These amendments—which expressly prohibit the use of curriculum that was rejected because of concerns about anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bias—strengthen the firm guardrails included in AB 101 and leave no doubt that hate and bigotry against Jews, Israelis, or any other community is prohibited by law and cannot be taught in our classrooms.”
“While we are pleased that AB 101 includes explicit guardrails to protect our community, our work is far from complete. In the coming months, the Jewish Caucus will continue to remain actively engaged to ensure that the teaching of ethnic studies is free from any anti-Jewish bias or discrimination and adheres to the highest educational standards.”
Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel is chair and State Senator Scott Wiener is vice chair of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. Both men are Democrats.
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Preceding provided by the California Legislative Jewish Caucus.
StandWithUs issued this comment:
Assembly Bill 101 (AB101) is legislation that would make ethnic studies a graduation requirement for all public high school students in California, starting with the 2029-2030 academic year.
StandWithUs has been deeply involved in the debate over ethnic studies in California since August, 2019. We are sharing an update now because AB101 has passed the California Assembly and Senate, and is expected to be signed by the Governor soon.
We believe the goal of ethnic studies is important and positive: to represent and uplift marginalized communities in public education. Because of our work together with thousands of citizens and partners across the state, the California State Board of Education recognized that content about Jews and antisemitism belongs in K-12 ethnic studies.
However, interest groups are working harder than ever to use these courses as a platform for anti-Israel propaganda, antisemitism, and other forms of bias. They are pushing slanderous curriculum materials directly to local teachers, schools, and school districts, regardless of what California’s state government does.
We cannot allow this hatred to be institutionalized in our public education system, especially through courses that students are required to take in order to graduate. As such, we supported amendments to AB101 and have been closely tracking the bill.
The original version of AB101 included a requirement that ethnic studies instruction and materials, “not reflect or promote, directly or indirectly, any bias, bigotry, or discrimination” against anyone based on their identity.
The final version included key amendments added by Senator Anthony Portantino, which do the following:
1) Clarify that the requirement prohibiting bias, bigotry, and discrimination applies to all ethnic studies “curriculum, instruction, and instructional materials”.
2) Clarify that all ethnic studies curriculum, instruction, instructional materials, and lesson plans must be appropriate for use with students of all nationalities.
3) Add guidelines stating that when developing their own ethnic studies courses, local schools and school districts should not use parts of the draft Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) that were rejected by state education officials due to bias and bigotry.
So what does this all mean?
Even with these amendments, StandWithUs fully expects widespread efforts to inject antisemitism and anti-Israel bias into ethnic studies courses. However, the latest changes to AB101 create additional tools that people all over California can and should use to fight back in schools and school districts where this hatred appears. The changes can also help with approaching school districts proactively.
In short, no matter what happens with AB101, we have a lot of work to do and we need as many people as possible across California to get involved.
Indeed, the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, stated that, “our work is far from complete. In the coming months, the Jewish Caucus will continue to remain actively engaged to ensure that the teaching of ethnic studies is free from any anti-Jewish bias or discrimination and adheres to the highest educational standards.”
AMCHA Initiative Director, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, today issued the following statement in opposition to the California Legislature’s passage of AB 101:
“Every member of the Jewish community in California and across the country should be deeply concerned about the passage of AB 101. Although many have devoted countless hours and tireless efforts to ensuring this bill would not inject antisemitism and anti-Zionism into California’s classrooms, including recently added amendments that encourage local school districts to adopt the state-approved Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), the bill that passed does not, and by law cannot, prohibit schools from teaching the overtly antisemitic and roundly rejected first draft of the ESMC, or an even more extreme Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum being vigorously promoted throughout the state.
“One amendment states that it is the ‘intent of the Legislature’ that local school districts use the state-approved curriculum and not use ‘portions of the draft model curriculum that were not adopted,’ and while well-intentioned, it does not, and cannot, prohibit a school district from using the antisemitic first draft of the model curriculum, or the even more extreme and antisemitic Liberated curriculum Another amendment requiring local school districts to publicly vet any ethnic studies curriculum other than the state-approved ESMC puts the onus of fighting against the Liberated curriculum on parents in individual school districts. But given that there are over 1,000 school districts in California, it is unrealistic and unfair to expect parents in each and every district to publicly challenge an antisemitic curriculum like the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, that has already garnered support from the state’s major teachers’ unions and ethnic studies departments and faculty in the state’s public universities. And with regard to the so-called ‘guardrail’ language being touted by the bill’s supporters as ensuring that hate and bigotry against Jews and Israelis will be kept out of ethnic studies classrooms, that language is simply a restatement of a state law that has been on the books for decades, and as we have seen from ethnic studies taught on the college level, these so-called ‘guardrails’ will do nothing to prevent a curriculum or teacher from portraying Jews and Israel in antisemitic and anti-Zionist ways. Even more frightening, the group of activist-educators peddling the Liberated curriculum have already had success promoting their curriculum and consulting services in many school districts throughout the state, including Hayward, Santa Cruz, Jefferson, Salinas, San Francisco and San Diego.”
“Despite the efforts of the Legislative Jewish Caucus and some Jewish organizations, the reality is that there is no way these amendments can prevent antisemitic curricula like the first draft or even the more overtly antisemitic Liberated curriculum from finding their way into California classrooms, especially given their support from the state’s major teachers’ unions and the ethnic studies higher education community. The only way to ensure these antisemitic 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.”
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Rossman-Benjamin was the first to expose the way in which the discipline of Critical Ethnic Studies is deeply antisemitic and anti-Zionist. AMCHA has led several coalition efforts to educate officials about the dangers of a curriculum based on Critical Ethnic Studies. AMCHA’s Director, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, has testified before the California Senate Education Committee and the Assembly Education Committee against AB 101, and provided evidence that if AB 101 becomes law, most school districts will adopt some version of the rejected antisemitic first draft.