SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Governor Gavin Newsom said he is securing textbooks to distribute in a California school district that has rejected a social studies curriculum.
Newsom says he’s also supporting a bill that would fine school districts if they don’t provide adequate instruction.
This is becoming more common. A political expert said, across the country, governors and state legislatures are working to gain more control of local school districts as the country continues to debate over culture wars.
Governor Gavin Newsom took to Twitter in response to the Temecula Valley Unified School District’s rejection of supplemental material due to it including references to gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
“Social studies books that are being made available, quite literally to hundreds of 1,000s of kids all throughout the state of California that are being denied to the kids of the Temecula school District,” Newsom said on Twitter.
He says the state is securing textbooks right now and is prepared to intervene.
“We'll be sending those books down in very short order,” said Newsom.
The decision angered some like Roseville City School District board trustee Jonathan Zachreson.
“We have a super majority in the legislature that doesn't necessarily reflect the opinions and values of every community in California. And so, I think it's important that we maintain that autonomy in our state and even across the nation that school boards have those, be able to respond to the needs of their community.”
UC San Diego Political Science Professor Thad Kousser says it’s a trend nationwide.
“This is also an example of a state intervening with a local government, when party polarization and ideological culture wars have kind of taken them in two different directions. And so, we're seeing this in fights in red states with blue cities, and in California, in our blue state, as some red cities or school districts try to move in the opposite direction,” said Kousser.
While some might not like big government intervening in small government, Kousser says, within some bounds, it’s legal.
“Local governments are not an independent layer of government in America. We don't have three layers of government; we just have two: national and state. And the controlling court decision on this, says local governments, cities are creatures of the state,“ said Kousser.
The bill supported by Newsom, AB1078 by Assemblymember Corey Jackson, would require a two-thirds vote for a school board to remove instructional material. It would also allow the Department of Education to purchase textbooks if the school districts failed to provide them and fine districts that don’t align with the state standards.
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