BILL NUMBER: AB 531	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 15, 2008
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JANUARY 7, 2008
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  DECEMBER 13, 2007

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Salas
    (   Coauthors:   Assembly Members 
 Brownley,   Eng,  Hancock,   Mullin,
  and Solorio   ) 

                        FEBRUARY 21, 2007

   An act to add Section 51204.6 to the Education Code, relating to
the public school curriculum.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 531, as amended, Salas. Curriculum frameworks: social sciences:
school segregation.
    Existing law requires the Curriculum Development and Supplemental
Materials Commission to recommend curriculum frameworks to the State
Board of Education. The board is required to adopt the content of
curriculum frameworks in accordance with specified regulations. The
board also is required to bring the curriculum frameworks into
alignment with the statewide content and performance standards and to
ensure that curriculum frameworks are reviewed and adopted in each
of specified subject areas consistent with the cycles for the
submission of instructional materials for adoption by the board.
   This bill would require the case of Mendez v. Westminster School
Dist. (64 F. Supp. 544 (C.D. Cal.1946), aff'd, Westminster School
Dist. v. Mendez (9th Cir. 1947) 161 F. 2d 774) and the role of this
case in the civil rights movement and the desegregation of public
schools in California and the nation to be included in the
history-social science framework  when that framework is next
reviewed and adopted   , evaluation criteria, and
instructional materials adopted in the course of the next submission
cycle  .
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) In 1943, the children of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez were
denied entry into the 17th Street School in Westminster, California
because they were Mexican American. As a result, the Mendez family in
March of 1945 joined four other Latino families and sued four school
districts in Orange County on behalf of their children and 5,000
others. The Mendez family earned a living as tenant farmers and was
able to bring the lawsuit forward with the help of civil rights
attorney David Marcus.
   (b) The lawsuit, Mendez v. Westminster School Dist. (64 F. Supp.
544 (C.D. Cal.1946), aff'd, Westminster School Dist. v. Mendez (9th
Cir. 1947) 161 F. 2d 774), argued that the school districts denied
the children equal protection under the law and due process of law
under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Eventually, amicus curiae briefs were filed by the American Jewish
Congress, the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the Japanese
Americans Citizens League, and the NAACP. The success of the lawsuit
led to legislation in California that repealed laws mandating
segregation and set legal and strategic precedent for other cases
striving to end educational segregation, including the national
landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education.
   (c) As a result of the Mendez case, the Legislature and Governor
Earl Warren in 1947 repealed the last school segregation statutes in
California, making California the first state to end school
segregation. The Mendez case represents the beginning of the end of
legal school segregation and signifies the important role of
California in the civil rights movement, a role that should be both
preserved and remembered.
  SEC. 2.  Section 51204.6 is added to the Education Code, to read:
   51204.6.  (a) The State Board of Education and the Curriculum
Development and Supplemental Materials Commission shall ensure that
the history-social science framework  , evaluation criteria,
 and instructional materials adopted in the course of the next
submission cycle following the date on which this section becomes
effective include the case of Mendez v. Westminster School Dist. (64
F. Supp. 544 (C.D. Cal.1946), aff'd, Westminster School Dist. v.
Mendez (9th Cir. 1947) 161 F. 2d 774) and the role of this case in
the civil rights movement and the desegregation of public schools in
California and the nation.
   (b) The Legislature encourages instruction on the case of Mendez
v. Westminster School Dist. (64 F. Supp. 544 (C.D. Cal.1946), aff'd,
Westminster School Dist. v. Mendez (9th Cir. 1947) 161 F. 2d 774) to
include the oral or video history of the people who were involved in
the case and efforts they made to end educational segregation in
California. These histories also shall solicit comment from their
subjects regarding all of the following:
   (1) The reasons for their involvement in the case.
   (2) The impact the case had on their lives.
   (3) The consequences of educational desegregation in the United
States.
   (c) The Legislature encourages all state and local professional
development activities to provide teachers with content background
and resources to assist in teaching about the case of Mendez v.
Westminster School Dist. (64 F. Supp. 544 (C.D. Cal.1946), aff'd,
Westminster School Dist. v. Mendez (9th Cir. 1947) 161 F. 2d 774).