BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 146
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
146 (Cristina Garcia)
As Amended September 1, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |62-9 |(June 2, 2015) |SENATE: | 29-7 |(September 2, |
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Original Committee Reference: ED.
SUMMARY: Requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to
consider including content on the deportation of citizens and
lawful permanent residents of the United States to Mexico during
the Great Depression in the next revision of the history-social
science framework and related materials.
The Senate amendments remove the requirement that the specified
content be included in curriculum resources for teachers.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the Instructional Quality Commission (formerly
called the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials
Commission) as an advisory body to the SBE on matters related
to curriculum, instructional materials, and content standards.
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2)Requires the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) to
consider incorporating into the history-social science
framework content on specific historical events, including the
Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides and the
Great Irish Famine of 1845-1850.
3)Encourages the Department of Education to incorporate into
publications that provide examples of curriculum resources,
age-appropriate materials on the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur,
and Rwandan genocides. Encourages the incorporation of
survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness oral testimony into
the teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide.
4)Encourages state and local professional development activities
to provide teachers with content background and resources to
assist them in teaching about civil rights, human rights
violations, genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, one-time costs to the California Department of
Education (CDE) of approximately $19,000 to the extent that
additional information is included in the history-social science
curriculum framework on this subject. (General Fund)
COMMENTS:
Origin of this bill. This bill was the winning proposal in a
legislative proposal competition sponsored by the author. It
was submitted by a 5th grade class at Bell Gardens Elementary
School in the Montebello Unified School District.
Draft History-Social Science Framework revision includes
references to this event. The draft revision to the
History-Social Science Framework released in September, 2014
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includes some references to the deportation event. In the
chapter of course descriptions for grades Kindergarten through
Grade 5, the following reference is included in a section on
Modern California: "Students can also learn about other
important events in California's civil rights history, such as ?
the forced repatriation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to
Mexico that took place during the Great Depression." In the
chapter of course descriptions for grades nine through twelve,
the following reference is made in a section on the Great
Depression: "The economic crisis also led to the Mexican
Repatriation Program, in which the Secretary of Labor directed
government agents to force nearly 400,000 Mexican migrants (both
legal and illegal) out of the country."
History-social science framework adoption delayed. The
History-Social Science standards currently in use were adopted
in 1998, and the most recent framework was published in 2005.
The Curriculum Commission (now the IQC) began work revising the
History-Social Science Framework in January of 2008. A
significant amount of the process had been completed (focus
groups, selection of evaluation criteria committee members, five
drafting meetings) when in 2009 the state's fiscal emergency led
to a statutory suspension (AB 2 X4 (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes
of 2009, Fourth Extraordinary Session) of instructional
materials adoptions and framework revisions until the 2013-14
school year. That suspension was later extended until the
2015-16 school year (SB 70 (Budget and Fiscal Review Committee),
Chapter 7, Statutes of 2011).
The IQC began work again on the revision in July 2014 and
released the draft History-Social Science framework for field
review in September 2014. The draft generated extensive public
comment it generated (nearly 700 comments). The IQC also
determined that more subject matter expertise was needed for
certain areas (including some mandated for inclusion by
legislation), and submitted a budget request for $124,000 to
hire experts through an interagency agreement. These events
have caused significant delays in the production of the revised
framework. Originally scheduled for adoption in May 2015, this
framework is now set to be recommended to the State Board by
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March 2016, with final publication in fall 2016.
Analysis Prepared by:
Tanya Lieberman / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN:
0001993