A week after a California school district agreed to halt its teaching of ethnic studies courses amid accusations of antisemitism in the curriculum, a group of Democratic state lawmakers in Sacramento introduced legislation on Monday to provide greater scrutiny of the ethnic studies course that will soon be a graduation requirement for California students. 

The bill’s authors made clear that the measure is a response to antisemitic material appearing in ethnic studies courses in California public schools. Beginning with the class of 2030, California high schoolers will be required to pass an ethnic studies course to graduate. 

“The lack of rigorous curriculum standards for ethnic studies has allowed groups with biased ideological agendas to peddle factually inaccurate and blatantly antisemitic curriculum to school districts, posing a threat to Jewish children’s safety,” Democratic Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, one of the bill’s authors, said in a statement. “Antisemitism has only increased since the Oct. 7 attacks. We must ensure that ethnic studies has standards like we do for other core curriculum.” 

When California’s Legislature first considered mandating the teaching of ethnic studies in 2019, Jewish activists waged a statewide advocacy campaign against the first draft of a statewide model ethnic studies curriculum, which was drafted by far-left academics who endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and invoked antisemitic tropes. By the time Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed the bill into law in 2021, he had worked closely with Jewish leaders and activists from other ethnic and religious groups to draft a model curriculum that better represented Jewish history and the history of other minority groups. 

But it quickly became apparent that local school districts could teach ethnic studies — a discipline examining the history and culture of different racial and ethnic groups in the United States — in any way they wanted, including with material that the governor had omitted because of concerns about antisemitism. 

“This goes way further back than just Oct. 7,” said David Bocarsly, executive director of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, a coalition of Jewish communal organizations throughout the state, which helped author the legislation. “The rollout of ethnic studies in California has led to a lot of fear and anxiety in the Jewish community.” 

The new bill, which has 31 co-sponsors in the state Assembly and state Senate, will create statewide standards for ethnic studies that teachers will be obligated to meet. It also has oversight provisions allowing for greater transparency and public input on the curricula adopted by California school districts.

“We need clear curricular standards for ethnic studies, just as we have for science, history and other mandated courses,” said Tyler Gregory, CEO of the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council. “This new bill will hold ethnic studies courses to the same rigorous standards, and will provide a much needed screen to prevent antisemitic and anti-Israel content in our classrooms.”

Last week, Santa Ana School District in Orange County cited antisemitism as the reason it would stop teaching ethnic studies temporarily. The school district settled a lawsuit with several Jewish groups and agreed to redesign its ethnic studies courses with greater public input. 

“There are some people who think that [ethnic studies is] beyond repair,” said Bocarsly. “We feel strongly that this, if done right, is a good thing. But we know that this fear is very real, and we’re working to alleviate it as best as we can.”