BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1380
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1380 (Wyland)
As Amended August 22, 2014
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE : 33-0
EDUCATION 7-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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|Ayes:|Buchanan, Olsen, Ch�vez, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow, |
| |Gonzalez, Nazarian, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Weber, Williams | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, |
| | | |Gomez, Holden, Jones, |
| | | |Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner, |
| | | |Weber |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) to
consider including the Armenian Genocide when the history-social
science curriculum framework is revised. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Encourages instruction in the origins of genocide and
encourages content providers and teachers to promote pupil
analysis of genocides, including the ethnic, religious, and
political cause.
2)Encourages content providers and teachers to incorporate
instructional materials for pupils that examine the possible
means of preventing and halting genocide policies or
interventions by the United Nations, other groups of nations,
or the United States, including arguments and evidence for and
against intervention, the role of public support for the
intervention, and the possible consequences of such
interventions.
3)Encourages incorporating survivor, rescuer, liberator, and
witness oral testimony when teaching about genocide, including
the Armenia, Cambodia, Darfur, and Rwandan genocides.
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4)Defines the term "oral testimony" to mean only those firsthand
accounts of significant historical events and provides
examples of the formats of such testimony.
5)Requires the IQC to consider including the Armenian Genocide
when the history-social science curriculum framework is
revised.
6)Includes chaptering out language for AB 1915 (Nazarian) of the
current legislative session.
7)Makes technical and non-substantive changes to this section.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires each Local Educational Agency (LEA) to adopt a course
of study in the social sciences for grades 7 to 12, inclusive,
that includes the study of the inhumanity of genocide,
slavery, and the Holocaust.
2)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to
incorporate examples of curriculum resources in its
publications that relate to genocide, and specifically to the
Holocaust.
3)Encourages all state and local professional development
activities to provide teachers with content background and
resources to assist in teaching about genocide.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, there are minor/absorbable costs to the CDE for the
IQC to consider including the Armenian Genocide when the
history-social science curriculum framework is revised.
According to the CDE the current draft of the history-social
science framework already covers the Armenian genocide. To the
extent major rewriting of the framework is needed, however, CDE
indicates they could need additional resources and an extended
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timeline for adoption.
COMMENTS :
Chaptering Out Amendments
AB 1915 enacts the Armenian Genocide Education Act and requires
the CDE to consider incorporating materials relating to the
Rwandan, Cambodian, and Darfur, and Armenian genocides, into
curriculum resources and the history and social science
frameworks. The chaptering out language differs from the
language of this bill as follows:
1)Includes language that encourages the CDE to include
instruction in the Armenian, Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan
genocides in curriculum resources for teachers.
2)Includes language that encourages all state and local
professional development activities to provide teachers with
content background and resources to assist in teaching about
the Armenian Genocide.
3)Defines "Armenian Genocide" to mean the torture, starvation,
and , and murder of 1.5 million Armenians, which included
death marches into Syrian desert, by the rulers of the Ottoman
Turkish Empire and the exile of more than 500,000 innocent
The Armenian Genocide
The California Senate, in SB 424 (Poochigian), Chapter 9,
Statutes of 2005, recognized the Armenian Genocide as a series
of events occurring between 1915 and 1918 in which the rulers of
the Ottoman Turkish Empire systematically exterminated its
Armenian citizens. During this time, the rulers conducted
massacres and forced labor of able bodied Armenian men.
Additionally, the Ottoman Turkish rulers forced Armenian women,
children, elderly, and infirm to march from their homeland to
the Syrian Desert. Approximately 75% of those Armenian people
on these marches died. Between one million and 1.5 million
Armenian people were killed during this three year period.
Course of Study
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Existing law requires each local board of education to adopt
a course of study for grades 1 through 6, and/or grades 7
through 12, based on the grades served by the LEA. A course
of study is a scope and sequence of classes that are
designed to meet the specific topics identified in statute.
Existing law requires a local governing board to adopt
courses of study for grades 7 through 12 that includes
instruction in the following areas of study: English, social
science, foreign language, physical education, science,
mathematics, visual and performing arts, applied arts,
career technical education, and automobile driver education.
Within these instructional areas, the Legislature has
specified specific skills or concepts that must be included.
While not every class offered must be limited to the
statutory objectives, the LEA must structure its course
offerings so that all of these objectives areas are included
over the course of study offered to all students. Existing
law also permits a local board of education to adopt
additional areas of instruction.
Currently, there are a large number of topics and concepts
that are encouraged by the Legislature for inclusion in the
social sciences course of study. These include, in part:
1) An understanding of the wise use of natural resources;
2) The American role in World War II WWII and personal
testimony of American soldiers who served in that war;
3) The role of Filipino Americans in WWII; and
4) The "Secret War" in Laos and the role of Southeast
Asians in this war as a part of instruction provided on
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the Vietnam War.
Analysis Prepared by : Jill Rice / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0005351