BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
AB 1915 (Nazarian) - Pupil Instruction: Armenian Genocide
Amended: June 25, 2014 Policy Vote: Education 7-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 1915 requires the course of study for grades
7-12 social science to include instruction on the Armenian
Genocide. This bill requires the California Department of
Education (CDE) to consider incorporating materials relating to
civil rights, human rights violations, genocide, slavery, the
Armenian genocide, and the Holocaust into publications that
provide examples of curriculum resources. This bill would also
encourage the CDE to incorporate materials related to the
Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides into those
publications, and would require the Instructional Quality
Commission (IQC) to consider including those genocides in the
recommended history-social science curriculum framework during
its next revision. The bill declares the intent of the
Legislature to encourage the incorporation of survivor, rescuer,
liberator, and witness oral testimony, as defined, into the
teaching of human rights, the Holocaust, and genocide, as
specified.
Fiscal Impact: Several provisions of this bill encourage
activities or the consideration of activities by the CDE. This
creates substantial cost pressure for the department to complete
those activities, the cost of which would be:
Curriculum: Approximately $150,000 (General Fund) in costs
to the CDE to review curriculum and incorporate materials
relating to the Armenian Genocide into publications that
provide examples of curriculum resources.
History-Social Science Framework: Likely minor costs to the
IQC and CDE to incorporate the genocide in Darfur into the
next revision of the history-social science framework.
Professional development: Approximately $125,000 (General
Fund) in costs to the CDE to develop an online learning
module to provide teachers with content background and
resources including survivor, rescuer, liberator, and
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witness testimony in the specified areas.
Mandate: Potentially significant mandate on school
districts to ensure that pupils receive instruction in the
Armenian Genocide within the course of study in social
science.
Background: Academic content standards define the knowledge,
concepts and skills that pupils should learn at each grade
level. Curricular frameworks serve as a blueprint for how to
implement the standards and provide guidance to publishers,
along with evaluation criteria, for the development of
instructional materials. The processes for the revision of
curricular frameworks and adoption of instructional materials
are suspended until the 2015-16 school year. (Education Code �
60200.7)
The history-social science framework was last adopted in 2005.
The processes for reviewing frameworks and adopting
instructional materials have been suspended since July 2009, due
to budget constraints. At the time of the suspension, a review
of the history-social science framework was nearly complete.
Since the suspension, the CDE has ceased work on the review and
update. The State Board of Education (SBE) is specifically
prohibited from reviewing frameworks and adopting instructional
materials until the 2015-16 school year. (EC � 60200.7 and �
60200.8)
The role of the IQC is to recommend curriculum frameworks to the
SBE, develop criteria for evaluating instructional materials,
study, evaluate and recommend to the SBE instructional materials
for adoption, and make recommendations to the SBE regarding the
use of frameworks and model curriculum and alignment with the
academic content standards. (EC � 60204)
Proposed Law: This bill makes the following changes relative to
instruction on genocide:
1) Requires instruction in the Armenian Genocide within the
course of study in social science in grades 7-12.
2) Requires the CDE to consider incorporating (rather than
requiring the CDE to incorporate) materials relating to
civil rights, human rights violations, genocide, slavery,
and the Holocaust into publications that provide examples
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of curriculum resources.
3) Adds the Armenian genocide to the list of topics that
CDE is to consider for incorporation into materials, per
#1.
4) Encourages 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 the Armenian, Cambodian,
Darfur, and Rwandan genocides.
5) Requires the IQC to consider including those genocides
in the recommended history-social science curriculum
framework during its next revision.
6) Declare the intent of the Legislature to encourage the
incorporation of survivor, rescuer, liberator, and witness
oral testimony, as defined, into the teaching of human
rights, the Holocaust, and genocide, as specified.
Related Legislation: SB 234 (Wyland) 2009 would have required
the Curriculum Commission (now the IQC) 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
Framework. That bill was held under submission in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
SR 31 (Wyland) 2009 resolved that schools in California would be
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. That resolution died in the Senate
Rules Committee.
AB 1021 (Yee) 2003 would have required that the Armenian
Genocide be considered in the next cycle in which the
history-social science curriculum framework and its accompanying
instructional materials were adopted. That bill was held under
submission in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
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Staff Comments: This bill adds the Armenian Genocide to a list
of topics on which schools are required to provide pupil
instruction, within the course of study in social science in
grades 7-12. This requirement may constitute a new reimbursable
state mandate, to the extent that school districts could prove
unique costs for inclusion of the Armenian Genocide in required
instruction.
The bill's other provisions either require the CDE to "consider"
certain activities or state legislative encouragement for other
activities. Legislative encouragement creates cost pressure for
the CDE to take on the work specified in this bill, which would
drive state level costs in excess of $275,000.