BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1451
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Date of Hearing: August 4, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 1451 (Yee) - As Amended: June 23, 2010
Policy Committee: Education Vote:6-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the State Board of Education (SBE), at the
next adoption of the History/Social Science Curriculum
Framework, and school districts to ensure the framework complies
with existing statute related to racial diversity, United States
History, and ethnic tolerance, as specified. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires the SBE to inform the secretary of education and the
chairs of the Assembly and Senate Education Committees of
content it interprets (as part of the social content review
process for instructional materials) to be the result of
changes to Texas statute adopted in May 2010 governing the
adoption of instructional materials (IM).
2)Extends the sunset date from January 1, 2011 to January 1,
2016 of the social content review statute conducted for
follow-up IM adoptions.
FISCAL EFFECT
Minor, absorbable GF administrative costs to SDE to complete the
requirements of this bill.
Due to the enactment of AB 2 X4 (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of
2009 (see below), the governor vetoed $705,000 (GF) for the
CDSMC, which conducts the majority of the work associated with
IM adoptions. Specifically, the governor stated, "it is
unnecessary for the CDSMC to continue to advise the SBE on
content frameworks and IM adoptions for the next five years or
until an agreed-upon process is reestablished. This reduction
removes funding for unnecessary commission per diem and travel
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as well as funding for SDE staff."
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . In May 2010, the Texas SBE adopted revisions to the
social studies curriculum for the 2011-12 school year for
students in grades K-12. According to the author, "the
revisions are a sharp departure from widely accepted
historical teachings that are driven by an inappropriate
ideological desire to influence academic content standards for
children in public schools. Due to the number of public school
students in the state, the changes in Texas could drastically
influence textbooks throughout the country as publishers often
develop materials based on the standards of larger states."
According to the author, the Texas revisions portray the
following:
a) Slavery didn't exist -The education board dropped
references to the slave trade in favor of calling it the
more innocuous "Atlantic triangular trade," and recasts
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic
fundamentalism.
b) Japanese internment was devoid of racism - In order
to counter the idea that the widespread internment of
Japanese citizens was not motivated by racism, amendments
were to include the small number of European internments.
c) Reducing the scope of Latino U.S. history -
Revisions downplay the importance of Latino heroes such
as C?sar E. Ch?vez, the late Mexican American civil
rights activist, because he "lacked the stature, impact
and overall contributions of so many others."
According to the author, "These curriculum changes are
unacceptable. It is widely presumed that the proposed changes
to Texas' social studies curriculum will have a national
impact on textbook content since Texas is the second larges
purchaser of textbooks in the United States (US), second only
to California."
1)Existing law requires instruction in social science to include
the early history of California and a study of the role and
contributions of men and women, black Americans, American
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Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Pacific Island people, and other
ethnic groups to the economic, political, and social
development of California and the US.
Statute also prohibits school districts from adopting IM that
contain any matter reflecting adversely upon persons because
of their race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex,
handicap, or occupation, as specified.
2)IM adoption process . Prior to the enactment of AB 2 X4
(Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009 in July 2009 (see below),
statute required the SBE to adopt basic IM in the core
academic content areas (English language arts, mathematics,
history/social science, and science) every six years for use
in grades K-8. It also established a schedule for the adoption
of IM in other subjects. Statute also required the SBE to
adopt statewide academically rigorous content standards in the
core curriculum areas. These content standards are implemented
through the curriculum frameworks, as adopted by SBE. The
adopted IM must be consistent with the criteria and standards
of quality prescribed in the adopted curriculum frameworks.
The development of curriculum frameworks is a multi-year
process. Also, the governing board of each school district
maintaining one or more high schools is authorized to adopt IM
for use in the high schools (grades 9-12) under its control.
3)AB 2 X4 (Evans), Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009 , specified that
local education agencies are not required to purchase IM
through the 2012-13 fiscal year. Consistent with the
non-purchasing requirement, Chapter 2 also suspended the
requirement for SBE to adopt IM or conduct other procedures
associated with adoption (i.e., adopting curriculum
frameworks) until the 2013-14 school year.
4)Related legislation . AB 2069 (Carter), held on this
committee's Suspense File in May 2010 established a timeline
for the adoption of IM, including history/social science,
commencing with the 2013-14 school year
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081