Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill intended to prevent conservative school boards from banning textbooks on the basis of how they portray minorities and LGBTQ people.
“From Temecula to Tallahassee, fringe ideologues across the country are attempting to whitewash history and ban books from schools,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a news release in a not-so-subtle dig at Florida Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.
“With this new law, we’re cementing California’s role as the true freedom state: a place where families — not political fanatics — have the freedom to decide what’s right for them,” Newsom said Monday, Sept. 25.
The bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Perris, said in the release that it “is the responsibility of every generation to continue the fight for civil and human rights against those who seek to take them away.”
“Today, California has met this historical imperative and we will be ready to meet the next one,” Jackson added.
The bill, AB 1078, requires school boards to approve learning materials that “accurately portray the contributions of people of all genders and the role and contributions of Latino Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans, and other ethnic, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic status groups.”
