California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a controversial bill which will require all students to take ‘ethnic studies’ in order to graduate high school.
This has been in the works for months, and the curriculum has been widely criticized.
The program in question has been described as neo-Marxist, anti-Israel and anti-capitalism.
It has also been suggested that this is a backdoor to introducing Critical Race Theory.
Andrew Mark Miller reports at FOX News:
Newsom signs controversial bill requiring ethnic studies for all CA students to graduateCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law Friday afternoon a bill requiring students to take ethnic studies classes in order to graduate. Critics contend the controversial bill opens the door to teaching critical race theory in the classroom.”This bill would add the completion of a one-semester course in ethnic studies, meeting specified requirements, to the graduation requirements commencing with pupils graduating in the 2029–30 school year, including for pupils enrolled in a charter school,” The bill, known as A.B. 101 states. “The bill would expressly authorize local educational agencies, including charter schools, to require a full-year course in ethnic studies at their discretion.”One of the bill’s authors, Democrat Assembly Member Jose Medina, said the bill is necessary in public schools.”The inclusion of ethnic studies in the high school curriculum is long overdue,” Medina said. “Students cannot have a full understanding of the history of our state and nation without the inclusion of the contributions and struggles of Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans.”…Others have accused the bill of opening the door for critical race theory, the controversial curriculum showing up in schools across the country that contends the United States is systemically racist.
AMCHA, which tracks anti-Semitism in education, released a statement on the bill:
“Having closely monitored and studied the ethnic studies scene unfold on college campuses for years, particularly in California, to say we are deeply concerned is an understatement. While certainly not all in the ethnic studies field fall into this category, there is a vocal and active faction of extremists who have long been seeking to inject their antisemitic and anti-Zionist agenda into our nation’s classrooms, and today that faction succeeded. This is a dark day for Jewish students in California and the dozens of other states that historically follow California’s lead.“The fact that no less than seven ‘guardrails’ were deemed necessary for preventing AB 101 from facilitating the widespread promotion of antisemitism is itself a stunning indictment of the bill and the dangers it poses for Jewish students and the Jewish community. And by law those so-called guardrails are purely optics. They carry zero weight when it comes to preventing school districts from bringing the rejected and blatantly antisemitic original ESMC curriculum or its far worse Liberated cousin into the classroom.“Making matters significantly worse, California’s teachers’ unions and public universities’ ethnic studies departments proudly support those overtly antisemitic curricula. Both the original ESMC draft and Liberated’s curriculum are endorsed by California’s two largest teachers’ unions and ethnic studies departments and faculty on Cal State and University of California campuses.
The battle over the injection of this far left ideology into public schools is still ongoing. We haven’t seen a rift like this since the battle over Obamacare.
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