California Makes Ethnic Studies a Requirement for Graduating From High School

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October 14, 2021

By Rachel Pilgrim, The Root

Passing a one-semester course in ethnic studies will be a requirement for public high school students to graduate in 2030.

…The law, AB 101, will require public high schools to offer ethnic studies courses in 2025 and make completion of one course mandatory for the class graduating in 2030.

Image for article titled California Makes Ethnic Studies a Requirement for Graduating From High School — Photo: hxdbzxy (Shutterstock)

According to CBS 8, [California Governor] Newsom vetoed a similar bill last year calling the proposed curriculum “insufficiently balanced.” Revisions were made to be more inclusive of Black, Asian, Latino, Native/Indigenous Americans and other communities that have been historically marginalized. The state Board of Education incorporated the revisions earlier this year. Newsom signed the bill on Friday afternoon….

Ethnic studies in California classrooms will move forward as a compromise between advocates who wanted an activist, anti-imperialist approach and those who asserted that the first version of the state teaching guide was filled with radical ideology, obscure academic jargon and bias against capitalism.

Alterations toned down these elements and also added the experiences of Jewish, Armenian and Sikh communities in the U.S….

“Ethnic studies courses enable students to learn their own stories — and those of their classmates,” Newsom said in a signing statement, according to the Times….

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