Democratic lawmakers pull bill to establish antisemitism ‘guardrails’ in ethnic studies
This story has been updated.
A California bill intended to place “guardrails” against antisemitism in mandatory ethnic studies high school courses died in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s suspense file last week after the authors requested that the bill be pulled.
Assembly Bill 2918, by Assemblymembers Dawn Addis, D-San Luis Obispo, and Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Hollywood, was one of more than 170 bills held in suspense by the Senate Appropriations Committee last Thursday, meaning the bill is effectively dead for the legislative session.
If passed into law, it would have required local educational agencies to “ensure that the course and instructional materials are developed in conjunction with specified stakeholders, including certificated teachers, classified public school staff, and parents and guardians of pupils,” according to a summary provided by the Digital Democracy project at CalMatters.
According to the bill authors, the legislation was pulled to allow more time to work on it.
“It’s important that we get this right the first time. This is a complicated issue that requires time and honest conversations, and we owe that to our educators, administrators, parents, and most importantly, our students,” Zbur said in a statement.
Addis added, “It is absolutely critical that students see themselves and their stories represented in their classrooms. Ethnic studies curriculum plays an essential role in honoring the diversity and complex history of California. We must teach California’s diverse students in ways that uplift and bring them together — and ensure antisemitism and other bias has no place.”
One group opposed to the legislation has given tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
According to the Digital Democracy archives, which draws records from state campaign finance documents, the California Faculty Association, which opposed the bill, has given more than $86,000 to the Democratic members of the Senate Appropriations Committee; that includes $18,500 to committee chair Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Merced, between 2018 and 2022.
A Digital Democracy analysis shows that Caballero voted with the CFA 72.5% of the time between 2017 and 2024.
Supporters of the bill said that since California enacted a law requiring high school students to complete an ethnic studies course in order to graduate, some of those classes were “co-opted” by people with anti-Jewish biases.
Groups that supported the bill included the Jewish Political Action Committee (JPAC).
Besides the CFA, others opposing the bill was the Sacramento chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, which said the legislation would be used to squash criticism of Israel.
A previous version of this story did not mention that AB 2918 was pulled at the author’s request.
This story was originally published August 19, 2024 at 12:36 PM with the headline "Democratic lawmakers pull bill to establish antisemitism ‘guardrails’ in ethnic studies."