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For years, California<\/span> Democrats have defended their landmark program to put ethnic studies classes in high schools across the state.<\/p>\n In the face of national right-wing media attacks<\/a> and local critics, the state\u2019s governing supermajority passed a law in 2021 making ethnic studies a graduation requirement, which supports school boards to develop their own curricula for the courses.<\/p>\n But one particular area of study threatens to unravel the Democratic consensus: Palestine.<\/p>\n In the past year, state lawmakers have teamed up with community groups and the lobbying coalition Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, or JPAC, in a push to regulate the ethnic studies program. They\u2019re aiming to pass a law that curbs local school board control over ethnic studies curricula in response to classwork focusing on the history of Israel and Palestine that they say has promoted unprecedented bigotry against Jewish students.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s backers are framing the effort as a way to ensure that ethnic studies \u201cwill combat all forms of hate,\u201d as one of the bill\u2019s authors, Assemblymember Dawn Addis, wrote in a March 30 op-ed<\/a>. \u201cAt a time when the federal government is trying to rewrite American history by banning diversity initiatives, California must persist in elevating the lived experiences of everyone in this country,\u201d wrote Addis, whose office did not respond to inquiries from The Intercept.<\/p>\n But as right-wing groups oppose the bill and ethnic studies more broadly, a coalition of critics<\/a> warn that the new controls could lead to the same type of state censorship in schools that has been put into law in conservative states like Texas and Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cThis language goes far beyond supporting culturally-responsive education in a general sense, and echoes educational gag order legislation we\u2019ve seen in other states nationwide,\u201d said PEN America spokesperson Suzanne Trimel in a statement. \u201cThis could result in state officials forcing a school or educator to pull certain materials they believe aren\u2019t \u201cfair\u201d or don\u2019t provide enough variety of perspective, concepts that are difficult to define.\u201d<\/p>\n Assembly Bill 1468<\/span> introduced<\/a> in February, would create new state standards for the ethnic studies classes that California schools must offer by the beginning of this coming school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n The discipline has its roots in California\u2019s college student strikes of the 1960s and was codified into state education law after years of deliberation in 2021. In that legislative process, teachers and scholars advocating for a more explicitly anti-imperialist approach in line with its radical origins lost out: Lessons on Palestine were excised from the law before it passed, and the left wing of the ethnic studies movement was sidelined from the process.<\/p>\n But still, the law required schools to begin offering an ethnic studies course by the fall of 2025, and schools teaching the course had the choice to develop curricula on their own, working with consultants and local communities or drawing upon guidance from the state.<\/p>\n Under the new law, standards will be written by a panel of academic experts in a specific subset of disciplines \u2014 African American studies, Latinx\/Chicanx studies, Asian American\/Pacific Islander studies, and Native American studies \u2014 with additional input from representatives of communities most frequently impacted by hate crimes according to state law enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s author has also promised<\/a> more \u201ctraditional\u201d scholars will be chosen by the governor. The state\u2019s current model curriculum on human rights and genocide, within the history and social science category, briefly<\/a> characterizes<\/a> the Nakba as an event in which \u201cPalestinians left Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n The California Department of Education would also receive all materials approved by local districts by 2026 and post their curricula online, with an eye for avoiding \u201cabstract ideological theories\u201d and focusing on the \u201cdomestic experience.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On a call in March, the bill\u2019s backers gathered<\/a> on a webinar<\/a> to discuss the game plan.<\/p>\n State Sen. Josh Becker, a Silicon Valley Democrat co-authoring the bill, said the bill \u201cdoesn\u2019t ban anything.\u201d He told the audience that his 12th-grade son received a presentation in an ethnic studies class that had a puppeteer\u2019s hand holding strings and said, \u201cIsrael is a country created on Palestinian land. The United Nations says this is illegal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe all knew the U.N. created Israel, and there was no Palestine before that, and Gaza was controlled by Egypt,\u201d Becker said, in remarks that were cut from the final video posted on Youtube. \u201cAnd we all know the history, this was not that.\u201d Becker\u2019s office did not respond to requests for comment, but he later posted on social media on the comments: \u201cI don\u2019t mean and haven\u2019t meant to say or imply anything minimizing the Palestinian connection to the land.\u201d<\/p>\n David Bocarsly, executive director of JPAC, explained to hundreds of listeners why he saw a new state law as a necessary step. \u201cDistrict-by-district outreach became a game of whack-a-mole, and we knew that we needed a statewide solution,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Part of PEN America\u2019s criticism is that A.B. 1468\u2019s compliance provisions take a \u201cone-size-fits all approach to education\u201d that \u201ccould amount to educational intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n But a large segment of California\u2019s Democratic establishment is lining up behind this bill. Thirty-one state Democrats, including all but one member of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, have already signed on as co-authors of the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n The state superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond, who plans to run for governor in 2026, has endorsed an earlier version<\/a> of the bill that was held by the author in an August committee hearing. And his office recently investigated a San Jose ethnic studies teacher, finding that they violated Jewish students\u2019 rights by failing to intervene with another perspective during a student project on genocide with a slide titled \u201cGenocide of Palestinians.\u201d (The investigation notes no students complained, and the district told The Intercept it will be responding to the state\u2019s findings.)<\/p>\n Two candidates running to replace Thurmond in 2026 have also indicated support for JPAC\u2019s efforts <\/a>on ethnic studies. One of them, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, chairs<\/a> the committee where the bill will face its first hearing. His office did not respond to questions from The Intercept.<\/p>\n The current movement<\/span> to clamp down on teaching Palestine in ethnic studies curriculum coalesced around a story out of Orange County. The Santa Ana Unified School District, adjacent to one of the nation\u2019s largest Arab American communities, approved two world history ethnic studies courses in April 2023 that briefly taught about Israel and Palestine, including content about the Nakba and settlements. After pro-Israel organizations objected, the district\u2019s superintendent vowed not to remove any group\u2019s narrative in May 2023.<\/p>\n But in September of that year, an Anti-Defamation League-backed coalition sued<\/a> on procedural grounds. During the messy litigation, lawyers pressed district staff and board members for their thoughts on Zionism and Hamas, and in August 2024, they uncovered text messages indicating senior district officials sought to avoid scrutiny by passing courses on a Jewish holiday. Two congressional Republicans subsequently called<\/a> for the district to undergo a federal investigation.<\/p>\n District leaders, meanwhile, responded by shelving<\/a> the contested courses as part of a February 2025 settlement, inviting the litigants to provide input to the course process while denying claims of discrimination. The agreement<\/a> also promises not to include several references to the oppression of Palestinians from a book<\/a> about ethnic cleansing by a British sociologist<\/a>.<\/p>\n