BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1915
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 9, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Joan Buchanan, Chair
AB 1915 (Nazarian and Achadjian) - As Amended: April 1, 2014
SUBJECT : Pupil instruction: social sciences: Armenian Genocide
SUMMARY : Establishes the Armenian Genocide Education Act and
requires the inclusion of the Armenian Genocide into courses of
study at each school district, requires the Armenian Genocide be
included in publications created by the California Department of
Education (CDE), encourages the use of oral testimony when
teaching about the Armenian Genocide, and encourages inclusion
of the Armenian Genocide in professional development activities.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires each school district to include instruction on the
inhumanity of the Armenian Genocide as a part of its social
science course of study.
2)Requires the CDE to incorporate into its publications examples
of curriculum resources for teachers relating to the Armenian
Genocide.
3)Encourages the incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator,
and witness testimony into the teaching of the Armenian
Genocide.
4)Encourages all state and local professional development
activities to provide teachers with content background and
resources to assist in teaching about the Armenian Genocide.
5)Defines the Armenian Genocide as "the torture, starvation, and
murder of 1,500,000 Armenians, which included death marches
into the Syrian desert, by the rulers of the Ottoman Turkish
Empire and exile of more than 500,000 innocent people during
the period from 1915 to 1923, inclusive.
6)Makes technical, non-substantive changes to these sections.
AB 1915
Page 2
EXISTING LAW
1)Requires each Local Educational Agency (LEA) to adopt a course
of study in the social sciences for grades 7 - 12, inclusive,
that includes the study of the inhumanity of genocide,
slavery, and the Holocaust.
2)Requires the CDE to incorporate examples of curriculum
resources in its publications that relate to genocide, and
specifically to the Holocaust.
3)Encourages all state and local professional development
activities to provide teachers with content background and
resources to assist in teaching about genocide.
FISCAL EFFECT : unknown
COMMENTS :
The Armenian Genocide
The California Senate, in SB 424 (Poochigian), Chapter 9,
Statutes of 2005, recognized the Armenian Genocide as a series
of events occurring between 1915 and 1918 in which the rulers of
the Ottoman Turkish Empire systematically exterminated its
Armenian citizens. During this time, the rulers conducted
massacres and forced labor of able bodied Armenian men.
Additionally, the Ottoman Turkish rulers forced Armenian women,
children, elderly, and infirm to march from their homeland to
the Syrian Desert. Approximately 75% of those Armenian people
on these marches died. Between 1 million and 1.5 million
Armenian people were killed during this three year period. This
bill expands this definition to include the period from 1918
through 1923 at which time the Ottoman Empire was defeated and
the Republic of Turkey was established.
Course of Study
Existing law requires each local board of education to adopt
a course of study for grades 1 - 6, inclusive, and/or grades
7 - 12, inclusive, based on the grades served by the LEA. A
course of study is a scope and sequence of classes that are
designed to meet the specific topics identified in statute.
AB 1915
Page 3
Existing law requires a local governing board to adopt
courses of study for grades 7 - 12 that includes instruction
in the following areas of study: English, social science,
foreign language, physical education, science, mathematics,
visual and performing arts, applied arts, career technical
education, and automobile driver education. Within these
instructional areas, the Legislature has specified specific
skills or concepts that must be included. While not every
class offered must be limited to the statutory objectives,
the LEA must structure its course offerings so that all of
these objectives areas are included over the course of study
offered to all students. Existing law also permits a local
board of education to adopt additional areas of instruction.
This bill requires the Armenian Genocide be included within
a school district's adopted course of study in social
science. This committee may wish to consider whether this
is necessary as the Armenian Genocide is already included in
the history/social science content standards which, in turn,
drive the content of the instructional materials and the
information included on state-wide assessments.
Additionally, while school districts are not required to do
so, they are already permitted to include the Armenian
Genocide in their course of study.
Including the Armenian Genocide in CDE Publications
Portions of this bill are substantially similar to AB 659
(Nazarian), passed out of this committee in January, 2014 by a
vote of 7-0 and now pending in the Senate Rules Committee.
Committee staff recommends amendments to bring the language of
this bill into alignment with previous amendments to AB 659
recommended by this committee and accepted by the author. Those
amendments include changing the language that requires the CDE
to incorporate examples of the Armenian Genocide into existing
publications to language that encourages the CDE to incorporate
examples of the Armenian Genocide in these publications.
California curriculum is based on state-adopted content
standards that are developed by the IQC (also referenced in
statute as the "commission") and approved by the State Board of
Education (SBE). The curriculum frameworks, similarly developed
by the IQC and adopted by the SBE, are guidelines for
implementing these standards. The IQC is an 18-member
commission consisting of one member of the Assembly, one member
AB 1915
Page 4
of the Senate, and 16 public members. At least seven of the
public members must have taught, written, or lectured on the
subject areas required for graduation. The committee may wish
to consider the extent to which academic content should be
mandated through statutory incorporation versus developed
through the IQC process. The IQC members have subject matter
expertise and may be better equipped to balance competing
demands for limited instructional time. The committee may also
wish to consider the extent to which the provisions of this bill
are met though existing law and practice. As previously
mentioned, the history/social science academic content standards
include a discussion of the Ottoman government's actions against
its Armenian citizens in the context of the causes and course of
World War I. Additionally, the draft history/social science
curriculum framework of 2009 includes a discussion of the
Armenian genocide by noting "Armenians were expelled from
Ottoman Turkey and forcefully marched to the Middle Eastern
desert. The Young Turk government created a systematic program
to exterminate the Armenians as a people, which has come to be
known as the Armenian Genocide." Finally, the CDE publishes a
searchable database of books titled Recommended Literature:
Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve. According to the CDE's
website, this list is designed for "children and teens which
helps students, teachers, and families find books that
entertain, inform, and explore new ideas and experiences." This
list was last revised in 2012 and includes at least four titles
addressing the Armenian Genocide with one of these being a
first-hand account.
Finally, the committee may wish to consider that the CDE already
publishes a model curriculum on human rights and genocide. This
curriculum was first published by the CDE in 1988 and serves as
a support document to the history/social science curriculum
framework. It covers, by grade levels, various curriculum
strands in the areas of human rights and genocide. The model
curriculum highlights human rights atrocities in Armenia, the
Ukraine, and Europe under the Nazis, as well as totalitarian
violations in Cambodia, Argentina, and South Africa. This model
curriculum was revised in 2000 and includes a lengthy discussion
of the Armenian Genocide.
Duplication of Pending Legislation
The portions of this bill that relate oral testimony and
professional development are also substantially similar to AB
AB 1915
Page 5
659 (Nazarian). Committee staff recommends amendments that will
bring these sections into alignment with the language of AB 659,
as previously approved by this committee. Specifically, staff
recommends amendments that encourage the use of oral testimony
in the teaching of the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur in
addition to the Armenian Genocide.
Finally, committee staff recommends an amendment that will
equally recognize the instances of genocide addressed in this
bill which include the genocides in Armenia, Cambodia, Darfur,
and Rwanda. Specifically, this amendment will encourage the CDE
to incorporate examples of the genocides in Cambodia, Darfur,
and Rwanda into existing publications and will require the IQC
to consider including the genocides Cambodia, Darfur, and Rwanda
into the history-social science framework when next revised.
Related Legislation
AB 659 (Nazarian) of 2013, pending in Senate Rules Committee,
passed out of this committee by a vote of 7-0, requires the CDE
to include the Armenian Genocide in its published curriculum
resources and encourages the incorporation of specific instances
of genocide into existing curriculum, professional development
activities, and in the next revision of the history/social
science curriculum framework.
AJR 35 (Perez) of 2014, pending on the floor of the Assembly,
would designate the week of April 20 through 26, 2014, as
"California Week of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of
1915-1923," and would memorialize the Congress and the President
of the United States to observe the California Week of
Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide by participating in the
Armenian Genocide Commemorative Project.
AJR 41 (Ian Calderon) of 2014, pending in the Assembly Rules
Committee, would commend the extraordinary service delivered by
Near East Relief to the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and
the Assyrian Genocide.
SB 1380 (Wyland) of 2014, pending in the Senate Education
Committee, requires the IQC to consider including the Armenian
Genocide in the next revision of the history/social science
framework and specifically identifies the Armenian Genocide when
encouraging the incorporation of oral testimony into the
teaching of human rights and genocide.
AB 1915
Page 6
SB 1419 (Wyland) of 2014, pending in the Senate Education
Committee, commencing with the 2015-16 school year, would
prohibit a pupil from receiving credit for passing a course in
world history, culture, and geography, without exposure in that
course to an oral history component, as defined, specifically
related to genocides, specifically including the Armenian
Genocide.
SJR 21 (De León and Yee) of 2014, pending in Senate Rules
Committee, would designate and encourage the people of
California to commemorate the month of April 2014, as
"California Month of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of
1915-1923," and would call upon the Congress and the President
of the United States to act likewise and to formally and
consistently recognize and reaffirm the historical truth that
the atrocities committed against the Armenian people constituted
genocide. The measure would commend conscientious educators who
teach about human rights and genocide. The measure would call
upon the President to work toward equitable, constructive,
stable, and durable Armenian-Turkish relations and a fair, just,
and comprehensive international resolution of this crime against
humanity, and would call upon the Republic of Turkey to
acknowledge the facts of the Armenian Genocide and to work
toward a just resolution.
Prior Related Legislation . SB 234 (Wyland) of 2009, which died
in Assembly Appropriations, required the Commission to consider
an oral history component specifically related to genocides,
including but not limited to, the Darfur, Rwandan, Cambodian,
Jewish Holocaust, or Armenian genocides in the history/social
science curriculum. This measure passed out of the Assembly
Education Committee by a vote of 10-0.
SR 31 (Wyland) of 2009, which died in Senate Rules, resolved
that schools in California are encouraged to include an oral
history of genocides, including, but not necessarily limited to,
the Darfur, Rwandan, Cambodian, Jewish Holocaust, and Armenian
genocides, in the history/social science curriculum component.
SB 424 (Poochigian), Chapter 9, Statutes of 2005, establishes
April 24 of each year as the "California Day of Remembrance of
the Armenian Genocide" and the period beginning on the Sunday
before that day through the following Sunday as the days of
remembrance of the Armenian Genocide. This measure was not heard
by the Assembly Education Committee.
AB 1915
Page 7
ACR 116 (Yee), Chapter 114, Statutes of 2004, urges the SBE to
take action at the next instructional materials primary adoption
cycle to ensure that history/social science textbooks used in
California schools in grade 10 fairly and accurately portray
human rights violations and other historical atrocities in a
comprehensive manner. This measure passed out of the Assembly
Education Committee by a vote of 11-0.
SJR 1 (Poochigian), Chapter 18, Statutes of 2003, designates
April 24, 2003, as the "California Day of Remembrance of the
Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923" and requests Congress to
likewise act to commemorate the Armenian Genocide. This measure
was not heard by the Assembly Education Committee.
AB 1021 (Yee) of 2003, requires the Armenian Genocide be
considered in the next cycle in which the history/social science
curriculum framework and its accompanying instructional
materials are adopted. This bill died in Assembly
Appropriations. This measure passed out of the Assembly
Education Committee by a vote of 11-0.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Armenian National Committee of America - Western Region
Knights of Vartan
The Genocide Education Project
Various Individuals
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087