BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1922
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 20, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
AB 1922 (Davis) - As Amended: April 14, 2010
SUBJECT : Civil rights education: California Civil Rights
Education Commission.
SUMMARY : Establishes the California Civil Rights Education
Commission (Commission), as specified. Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes the Commission, assigned to the California
Department of Education (CDE), comprised of a four-member
joint committee and 11 rotating members, with one member
designated as chairperson.
2)Requires the joint committee to include:
a) One representative of the University of California (UC),
to be appointed by the President of the UC;
b) One representative of the California State University
(CSU), to be appointed by the Chancellor of the CSU;
c) One representative of the California Community Colleges
(CCC), to be appointed by the Chancellor of the CCC; and,
d) At least one member who represents a civil rights
organization, including, but necessarily limited to, the
California State Conference of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.
3)Requires the 11 rotating members to be selected by the joint
committee, from applicants to the joint committee, and to
serve no more than two three-year terms, commencing and ending
on July 1 of the appropriate years. The initial members shall
be selected by July 1, 2011 and three shall serve terms ending
July 1, 2012, four shall serve terms ending July 1, 2013, and
four shall serve terms ending July 1, 2014.
4)Specifies that the members of the Commission be California
residents and appointed with due regard for broad geographic
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representation.
5)Provides that members of the Commission shall receive no
compensation for their services, but shall be reimbursed for
the expenses they incur while performing their duties.
6)Authorizes the Commission to:
a) Study and provide assistance and advice to the State
Board of Education (SBE) and the Curriculum Development and
Supplemental Materials Commission with respect to the
inclusion of civil rights education in the history-social
science framework and criteria for evaluating instructional
materials; and,
b) Study and review such framework already developed by the
History-Social Science Curriculum Framework and Criteria
Committee of the SBE.
7)Requires the Commission to adopt rules and regulations and set
standards and policies for their organization, operation,
management, budgeting, and programs.
8)Authorizes the CDE to apply for, and receive, gifts, grants,
and donations from any public or private sources, including,
but not necessarily limited to, federal funds and private
foundation grants for purposes of supporting the expenses
incurred in operating the Commission.
9)Requires the SBE to make civil rights education a mandatory
part of the curriculum in public elementary and secondary
schools and requires the SBE to work with the Commission in:
a) Providing information to public elementary and secondary
schools with respect to civil rights movement education and
awareness programs;
b) Creating an inventory of civil rights memorials,
exhibits, and resources that could be used in classrooms
and for other educational programs;
c) Compiling a list of volunteers who are willing to share
their knowledge and experiences concerning the struggle for
civil rights; and,
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10)Makes legislative findings and declarations.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires the CDE to incorporate, into publications that
provide examples of curriculum resources for teacher use those
materials developed by publishers of nonfiction, trade books,
and primary sources, or other public or private organizations,
that are age-appropriate and consistent with the subject
frameworks on history and social science that deal with civil
rights human rights violations, genocide, slavery, and the
Holocaust.
2)Encourages all state and local professional development
activities to provide teachers with content background and
resources to assist in teaching about civil rights, human
rights violations, genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust.
3)Provides that instructional materials adopted by the SBE for
social science shall include information designed to instruct
pupils on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil rights
movement, and contributions made by ethnic minority groups to
the history of the United States, and requires the SBE to
ensure that the materials present the information in a manner
consistent with the instruction provided in each grade level,
and requires the SBE to endeavor to see that this objective is
accomplished in the evaluation of instructional materials for
educational content.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill . According to the author's office, "The
rise of hate crimes and racial tension in California and across
the nation, most recently on several campuses within the UC
system, provides a compelling reason to completely re-approach
the process of developing state curriculum in the field of
history-social science. Far too many citizens obviously do not
appreciate the complexity of racial, social, economic, and
political problems.
"Based on the NAACP interviews of curriculum experts in school
districts throughout California, the state lacks a framework to
popularize recent academic studies that include the North as
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well as the South, women as well as men, multiracial rather than
just black v. white perspectives, and go beyond the traditional
1954-1964 textbook story centered on Martin Luther King, Jr.
"AB 1922 pursues a pedagogy that fundamentally links the way we
teach to what we teach in California, and intends to apply
relatively recent trends in academic studies of civil rights
movement history to the needs of K-12 educators."
Background . Over the past 5 years, 115 episodes of vandalism
involving hate speech have occurred on UC's 10 campuses. The
recent rash of racially charged incidents throughout the UC
system garnered national attention when a group of students at
UC San Diego held an off-campus party called the "Compton
Cookout" in early February; a week later, a noose and pillowcase
resembling a Ku Klux Klan hood were discovered. Similar
incidents were reported on UC campuses in Irvine, Santa Cruz and
Davis. UC President, Mark Yudof, in response, appointed Dean
Christopher Edley of UC Berkeley Law School, a civil rights and
Constitutional law expert, to act as a special advisor on racial
issues on the UC San Diego campus. Yudof has also outlined
strategies to build tolerance throughout the system and to
increase the number of underrepresented students at UC. UC
Regents Chairman Russell Gould apologized for these events,
stating, "I deeply regret that any member of the UC community
had to endure such disgusting displays of bigotry," Gould said.
"Whether they were perpetrated out of ignorance or hateful
intolerance, such actions have no place at the University of
California."
In 2005, the Legislature attempted to address the issue of
tolerance education. AB 723 (Chu) would have required the SBE
to integrate instruction on inter-group relations and tolerance
into existing curriculum frameworks. Similarly, AB 1056 (Chu)
would have the Tolerance Education Pilot Program, to be
administered by the CDE, to promote instruction in public
schools on tolerance and inter-group relations as part of the
instruction in the history/social science content standards.
Both bills were vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger because they
were "duplicative of current efforts to provide more avenues to
teach about tolerance and human rights" and that "it would be
prudent to review the progress being made before any additional
actions are contemplated."
An office for civil rights exists at the federal level with a
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very different role than the Commission established by this
bill. This bill creates a civil rights focused commission for
purposes of advising the SBE on curriculum matters, while the
federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) was established within the
United States Department of Education to ensure equal access to
education and the enforcement of civil rights. The OCR serves
student populations facing discrimination and one of its
responsibilities is resolving complaints of discrimination. OCR
also conducts compliance reviews and provides technical
assistance to help institutions achieve voluntary compliance
with the civil rights laws that OCR enforces.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California State Conference of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (sponsor)
California Teachers Association
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Marina Wiant / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301