New state bill looks to block bias in ethnic studies by standardizing courses

Lawmakers in Sacramento have introduced a bill that would set academic standards for high-school ethnic studies, an effort to quell what supporters of the bill describe as instances of antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in current courses.

The bill was introduced on Friday by state Assemblymembers Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) and Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles) with 29 co-authors, including nearly every member of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. Both Addis and Zbur are caucus members.

California legislators approved a bill in 2021 to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement, the first of its kind in the nation. The debate has heated up in recent months because 2025 is the first year that high schools are required to offer the course, pending a decision on funding from Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The new bill represents an effort from Sacramento to wrest back control over ethnic studies, amid local debates roiling school districts. Political moderates and Jewish organizations have raised alarms over content considered to be overly ideological, anti-Israel or antisemitic. The debates have intensified since Oct. 7, 2023:

• Earlier this month, a Southern California school district settled a lawsuit brought by the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups alleging antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in its ethnic studies courses.

• In Palo Alto, the school board narrowly approved a local ethnic studies requirement in January after contentious public meetings that required a security presence and ropes “to ensure orderly conduct,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

• Menlo-Atherton High School ethnic studies classes used slides, which came to light in January 2024, that described Israel as a nation illegally “created on Palestinian land” and established because “Europe felt bad about the Holocaust.”

• In Oakland, the teachers union hosted an unauthorized “teach-in” in December 2023 to instruct educators and their students about Palestinians. Teaching materials, which were not vetted by the school district, were stridently critical of Israel, relying on anti-Zionist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace.

The debate over ethnic studies in California long predates the uptick in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment that followed the Oct. 7 attack, dating back to 2015 amid a national focus on police brutality against Black people.

Traditionally, ethnic studies is the study of race and ethnicity with a focus on people of color. In California, the state guidance emphasizes four non-white ethnic groups: African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and Latino and “Chicanx” people. The curriculum is also meant to “foster multicultural respect.”

The new legislation, Assembly Bill 1468, will establish “rigorous content standards” for ethnic studies, just like the state has for other courses like math and English. Per the bill, the standards would be set by the California Board of Education by Jan. 1, 2028. It would also require ethnic studies curricula be vetted by the state Department of Education. The bill has won the support of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, a lobbying group that describes itself as “the voice of California’s Jewish community to the State Capitol.”

Addis, a vice chair of the Jewish caucus and a longtime educator who represents the San Luis Obispo area, described the importance of academic standards in a phone call with J. on Monday.

“It basically says what students are supposed to learn and be able to do, at grade level, within that course or curricular area,” she said. “We’ve got classes being taught right now — some of them are rife with antisemitism. Some have other problems with them. We need to have more robust support for teachers and families to understand what this is supposed to be.”

State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), a vice chair of the Jewish caucus who represents much of San Mateo County, is a principal co-author and a vocal supporter of the bill. 

Ethnic studies is the “only potentially required course for which the state has not developed rigorous curriculum standards,” he said. “It’s become clear that standards are necessary.”

Some have already attacked the bill, saying it leaves the door open to biased content or that it lacks teeth. 

Dillon Hosier, CEO of a lobbying group called the Israeli-American Civic Action Network, criticized the measure on Monday. His group, which represents the interests of Israeli Americans in California and other states, on Sunday released a lengthy “policy brief” to outline its opposition with talking points. 

“Frankly, we think we need to go back to a multicultural, positive, constructive kind of education in California,” he told J., deriding the bill’s focus on non-white races, which he considers exclusionary.

Hosier said Israeli Americans in his network have felt under attack.

“We can’t sit back and let our community be subject to rabid antisemitism in California,” he said. “Unfortunately, this bill is a vector to introduce that kind of activity in our schools.”

Regardless of the new bill, the future of the ethnic studies mandate was thrown into question at the start of the year. In January, a first draft of the governor’s budget did not include funding for its implementation, “given the state of the budget this year,” Erika Li, a chief deputy director in the state Department of Finance, told lawmakers in a hearing this month, according to Politico.

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian activists in California have pushed back on what they see as an effort to tamp down on teaching about the subject in schools. Among the groups crafting curricula for K-12 students is Teach Palestine, a project of the Berkeley-based nonprofit Middle East Children’s Alliance. Teach Palestine’s mission is “to support educators in bringing Palestine into their classrooms,” according to the organization’s website.

The new ethnic studies bill applies only to high schools, whereas groups like Teach Palestine create curriculum and materials for students as young as age 4. At Oakland’s December 2023 “teach-in,” for example, instructors were given information about materials for students in TK, or transitional kindergarten, including a picture book called “P is for Palestine” that includes a page that states “I is for Intifada.”