As Assembly Bill 101, sponsored by Assembly Member Luis Alejo from Salinas, Calif., makes its way through the political process, it faces challenges from more conservative elements of the ruling class. The bill was amended in the Appropriations Committee in order to get approved by the Assembly and sent over to the Senate. The bill as it has been amended now allows schools to opt out of offering courses in ethnic studies. It would “authorize” versus “require” schools that teach grades 7-12 to “offer as an elective course in the social sciences a course of study in ethnic studies based on the model curriculum framework.”
If it passes the Senate and is approved by the governor, this bill would require the state superintendent of public instruction to create an Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee to develop a model framework and submit it by June 30 of next year. Schools would then be authorized to offer the course but would not be required to do so and only as an elective.
In effect, this allows the state to skirt its responsibility to educate students in California on the contributions made by ethnic communities. By authorizing versus requiring, it is really upon the school itself to initiate the process to implement the courses. Of course, schools with active teachers and administrators that support this measure would take it upon themselves to do that work, as some already have.
Take Jose Lara, for example, he spearheaded a coalition of community groups and educators to push for the statewide effort to implement Ethnic Studies Now, but has also worked to implement the curriculum in his own district where he is a school board member. What about those districts and communities without receptive and progressive educators, will they decide to offer the courses? Without a state mandate, many will choose to maintain the status quo.
Without ethnic studies courses will future generations of students know what happened in Charleston on June 17, 2015? Or will school curriculum continue to ignore the Charleston Massacre as it has ignored all racist violence against Blacks in this country? Ethnic Studies curriculum is designed to uncover the truth about United States history. It is designed to challenge the cultural hegemony of the ruling class in this society. Without Ethnic Studies, students are led to believe that the United States got to where it is today because of American exceptionalism, not because of American slavery, land theft and violence.
Not only do we need Ethnic Studies, we need Social Justice taught in our schools to train youth and adults to become leaders in the fight against racism and capitalism as well. We need to give students the tools to become revolutionary leaders in the struggle for socialism.
