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High school students in the Class of 2030 in California will need to take an ethnic studies course to graduate, under a bill signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday.
The Golden State is believed to be the first in the United States to institute such a mandate.
Public and state charter schools will be required to offer at least one course in ethnic studies starting in the 2025-2026 school year.
Students will be required to complete the course in addition to other standard requirements in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences.
The requirement can be supplemented with an existing ethnic studies class from a school, a course approved by the University of California and California State University, or a locally developed course.
The new bill, AB 101, was drafted by California Congressman Jose Medina, a Democrat from Riverside. Medina, who introduced the legislation in 2020, called it a step “in the long struggle for equal education for all students”.
“Thanks to Governor Newsom for signing AB 101. The inclusion of ethnic studies in the high school curriculum is long overdue,” Medina said in a statement. “Students cannot have a full understanding of the history of our state and our nation without including the contributions and struggles of Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans.”
The model curriculum focuses on four historically marginalized groups and their contributions to American history, according to KTLA, including: African Americans, Chicanos and other Latinos, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native American.
It also includes lesson plans on American Jews, American Arabs, American Sikhs and American Armenians, who lobbied against a similar bill that excluded them, the outlet reported.
According to the bill, the course must meet the following criteria:
- Be appropriate for use with students of all races, religions, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, and diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, students with disabilities, and learners of English.
- Not to reflect or promote, directly or indirectly, any bias, sectarianism or discrimination against any person or group of persons on the basis of a category protected by Article 220.
- Do not teach or promote religious doctrine.
The Los Angeles school district, the second largest in the country, had already voted last year to require a compulsory ethnic studies course by the 2023-2024 school year, KTLA reported.
Newsom further signed legislation requiring public schools and colleges to provide free menstruation products in all toilets.
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