Update on Sept. 12: AB 715 passed the Senate appropriations committee late Thursday on a 4-1 vote with two abstentions. It now faces votes in the Senate and Assembly. The end of the legislative session has been extended one day to Saturday.
After bruising negotiations among lawmakers in Sacramento and powerful advocacy groups, a bill to tackle antisemitism in California K-12 schools has become “narrower” in the face of stiff opposition, according to a legislator who backs it.
The bill, AB 715, was advanced by the state Senate education committee on a 6-0 vote with one abstention late Sept. 10 after a four-hour public meeting. To reach the governor’s desk, the bill must still pass the Senate appropriations committee and both houses of the legislature by the end of the week before this year’s session wraps up. Lawmakers released the new version of the bill late Sept. 9.
“We have compromised on numerous things with our colleagues who expressed concerns,” Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay), a bill co-author, told J. on Sept. 9. Regardless, she said, it’s “a strong bill, and I think that is something that we should be proud of.”
The measure was written as a sweeping piece of legislation designed to combat the swell of antisemitic incidents across K-12 schools statewide.
Related story: Map of antisemitism at K-12 Bay Area schools since Oct. 7
Critics have framed the measure as a right-wing attempt to quell pro-Palestinian speech. The Council on American-Islamic Relations California described it as “classroom censorship.”
An earlier version released in July provided examples of when criticism of Israel crosses the line into antisemitism, for example, and stated that instruction on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must use “accurate, balanced, and objective language.” Those clauses were deleted. Instead, lawmakers added information on anti-Israeli discrimination — focusing on national origin discrimination — in a section of the bill that expresses the will or intent of the legislature, but doesn’t change the education code, which has the binding force of law.
The bill was originally crafted to combat antisemitism in ethnic studies, a subject with roots in radical left movements that has become widely adopted in recent years — the course is already a graduation requirement in San Francisco, Los Angeles and many other cities up and down the state. An effort to require the course statewide stalled after Gov. Gavin Newsom did not include funding for it in the 2025-2026 budget.
Yet AB 715 shifted away from focusing on ethnic studies exclusively and instead on course material across all disciplines.
The draft released in July sought to define what constituted an “antisemitic learning environment” in the classroom and listed nine examples, including “equating Jews or Israelis with Nazis or Nazi Germany,” “collective blame of Jewish people for the actions of the Israeli government,” and “language or images directly or indirectly denying the right of Israel to exist.”
“That won’t be part of the bill,” Addis, a member of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, told J. in advance of its release.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), a co-chair of the Jewish caucus and a strong backer of AB 715, described the measure as a “good, impactful bill,” adding, “it’s a narrower bill than what it was back in July. And that’s OK.”
Still, Wiener had sharp words for critics of the measure.
“I have increasingly come to the conclusion that if we had introduced a bill with three words — antisemitism is bad — a bunch of these people would still oppose the bill,” he said.
If passed, the legislation will establish a statewide “antisemitism prevention coordinator,” appointed by the governor, whose purpose is to report on antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools to state officials, provide training materials to educators and track discrimination complaints.
Addis said the coordinator will be housed under a newly created Office of Civil Rights, which could then support additional coordinators to target bias against other groups. The new Office of Civil Rights could create, for example, “an anti-gender discrimination coordinator,” Addis said.
A key complaint from opponents of the bill has been that it unduly focuses on antisemitism.
The bill also bolsters tools for parents to intervene when they discover discriminatory materials taught in their child’s school. The “process is going to be more immediately helpful to children,” Addis said.
Among the vocal opponents of AB 715 have been anti-Zionist organizations, progressive groups and, most potently, the California Teachers Association, the largest teachers union in the state and a powerful force in state politics, representing about 310,000 educators, according to the CTA.
Backing the bill have been large Jewish organizations including the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), which represents Jewish Federations, Jewish Community Relations Councils and other mainstream Jewish organizations.
Addis, a former teacher, said she is disappointed that, even after negotiations, the CTA is not likely to support it.
“I wish we had been able to be 100% on the same page, but reasonable minds can disagree,” she said.
Wiener, stressing the need for the legislation, described antisemitism as a “growing problem” that has led to violence against Jews in the U.S. and around the world. He described the bill as the result of a “complicated” process involving a good deal of “dialogue and feedback.”
“I think we have a path to pass it through committee,” Wiener said. “I never predict whether a bill will pass.”
David Bocarsly, executive director of JPAC, said AB 715 is still the right legislation for the current moment.
“We anticipate this will be a major step in the right direction to help address school antisemitism,” he said. “We know there’s always more work to do.”