BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1056
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Date of Hearing: January 18, 2006
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Judy Chu, Chair
AB 1056 (Chu) - As Amended: January 17, 2006
Policy Committee: EducationVote:9-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to
integrate instruction on intergroup relations and tolerance, as
specified, into existing English language arts (ELA), and
History/Social Science curriculum frameworks. It further
expresses legislative intent to establish a pilot program, until
January 1, 2009, using these revisions to the curriculum
frameworks, as specified.
Requires the SBE, prior to making revisions to the curriculum
frameworks and to the extent feasible to consult with civil
rights organizations and human relations commissions involved in
addressing discrimination on the basis of immigrant status and
race, ethnicity, gender, as disability, as defined under current
law.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)General Fund (GF) administrative costs of $200,000 to the
State Department of Education (SDE) to add one additional
review panel related to discrimination and tolerance to the
curriculum framework review process.
2)GF (Proposition 98) costs, likely in excess of $100,000, this
assumes that five school districts are provided $20,000 to
implement a tolerance curriculum pilot.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . The author contends there have been a number of
bias-motivated incidents in California schools. According to
the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) annual Audit of
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Anit-Semitic Incidents, there have been widely reported
bias-motivated incidents in public schools all over
California. For example, in 2004, anti-Semitic incidents
reached their highest level in California in nine years,
increasing from 180 to 237. The ADL audit attributes the
increase to reports of anti-Jewish harassment in schools. In
the eight states with the highest overall reports of
anti-Semitic acts last year, 13% occurred in schools.
According to the author, "as California continues its trend
towards becoming the first majority-minority state in the
country, inter-group tensions will continue to rise. Public
schools are often a microcosm of what is happening in the
communities around them. Schools have the duty to provide a
safe learning environment for their students. By incorporating
teachings about inter-group relations and tolerance into the
normal education process, this bill encourages youth to learn
about and appreciate the differences in people."
2)Existing law requires the SBE to adopt statewide academic
content and performance standards in the core areas of
reading, writing, mathematics, history/social science, and
science. The SBE is required to adopt statewide curriculum
standards, to review the existing curriculum frameworks for
conformity to those standards, and to align the frameworks as
necessary.
Furthermore, the SBE is required to ensure that instructional
materials adopted for social science in elementary school
include information designed to instruct pupils on Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., the civil rights movement, and the
contributions made by ethnic minority groups to the history of
the United States.
3)Previous legislation . AB 723 (Chu) required the SBE to
integrate instruction on intergroup relations and tolerance
into existing curriculum frameworks, where appropriate. This
bill was vetoed by the governor in September 2005, with the
following message:
"No one believes more strongly than I in the importance of
teaching our children tolerance for all persons, irrespective
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of race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, religious creed,
disability, or sexual orientation. However, this bill is
largely duplicative of current efforts to provide more avenues
to teach about tolerance and human rights.
For example, current law already establishes a Center for the
Excellence on the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, Human
Rights, and Tolerance to provide teachers the training and
resources to effectively teach about these subjects. In
addition, the SBE has adopted a Model Curriculum for Human
Rights and Genocide that is available to all schools. Finally,
with respect to tolerance of a more immediate nature, the SDE
has posted on its website model policies on the prevention of
bullying and hate-motivated behavior."
4)Similar legislation . AB 606 (Levine), which will be heard by
this committee on January 18, 2006, Establishes the Safe Place
to Learn Act, which requires school districts to establish and
publicize an antidiscrimination and antiharassment policy that
prohibits discrimination and harassment as specified under
current law, including, but not limited to, actual or
perceived gender identity and sexual orientation.
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081