This bill will make it harder for California school boards to ban books — and it’s picking up steam among lawmakers

California may make it harder to ban books in public schools — as it dives into the contentious, national debate pitting the First Amendment against conservative values.

A new bill — AB 1078 — was approved by the Assembly and passed through the Senate Education Committee last week. The bill would require a two-thirds vote from a school board to remove books from the classroom and impose fines on school districts that refuse to provide materials with “inclusive and diverse perspectives.”

“Our students of color and our LGBTQ+ students should not be threatened for their viewpoints, and they should not have education withheld from them,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, a proponent of the bill.

It’s a belief that the bill’s author, Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Perris, hopes will create a more “accurate, inclusive and equitable education system for all students in California.” But despite passing in the committee with a 5-2 vote, the bill has drawn controversy across the state.

AB 1078 was created in response to a Southern Californian school district, Temecula Valley Unified, banning a social studies curriculum because it included information about gay rights activist Harvey Milk. One of the first openly gay elected officials in the country, Milk served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors until his assassination in 1978. The elementary school curriculum was approved by the California Department of Education and vetted by nearly 50 of the school district’s teachers — but in May, the Temecula school board removed it after a 3-2 vote, leaving 11,000 students without a social studies curriculum in the year ahead.

“It was piloted. We followed every policy and procedures,” said Temecula Valley school board member Allison Barclay before voting against the ban. “Thirteen hundred families’ kids learned from this curriculum. We did not receive any complaints.”

School board member Jennifer Wiersma, who supported the ban, said she had heard from parents concerned about their grade schoolers studying LGBTQ issues. “There’s a time for all these things in education,” she said at the time. “It’s not K through 5.”

In the same meeting, the Temecula district’s school board president, Joseph Komrosky, repeatedly called Milk a pedophile. In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom called out Komrosky in a tweet earlier this month.

“An offensive statement from an ignorant person,” Newsom tweeted. “This isn’t Texas or Florida. In the Golden State, our kids have the freedom to learn.”

“Having recently visited Temecula Valley, I can tell you about the heartbreaking things that I’ve heard directly from our students,” said Thurmond, speaking at last week’s Senate Education Committee meeting. “They simply want to gain access to information that is proven to benefit them.”

Temecula Valley is not alone. Across the United States, similar debates on book banning have popped up with increasing pace: From July to December of 2022, nonprofit PEN America found 1,477 instances of banned books in 37 states, with Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina racking up the highest number of book removals. That was an increase of 28% compared to the prior six months, the organization reported.

PEN America found that 30% of the titles banned during the second half of 2022 were prohibited because they included topics about race, racism and characters of color, while 26% were banned because of LGBTQ+ “characters or themes.”

During that time period, the nonprofit found only one book ban in California — but in recent months, discussion on book banning has hit districts across the state. Earlier this year, school board members at San Ramon Valley Unified sparred over Gender Queer: A Memoir, with some parents claiming the book had pornographic images inappropriate for a school library and others saying books with LGBTQ+ content had helped make their kids feel safe.

For similar reasons, AB 1078 was not welcomed by everyone. At last week’s Senate Education Committee meeting, mother Allie Snyder spoke in opposition of the bill, claiming it would strip power from elected school board members and expose children to sexualized content.

“If it (California) continues passing bills such as AB 1078, parents will have no choice but to withdraw our children from the education system entirely,” Snyder told the committee. “Do not disenfranchise parents. Do not sexualize our kids.”

Carlos Machado, a legislative advocate of the California School Board Association, also voiced opposition to the bill. Machado said that though the organization agreed with the intent of AB 1078, he felt it would complicate things for school districts in regard to the financial penalties, increased oversight and local versus state control of school board decisions. Other parents and organization leaders called into the meeting, voicing both support and opposition of the bill.

“I’m extremely concerned that this bill will further divide our state,” said Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R- Yucaipa). “We have so many parents leaving the state of California, taking their children with them, because they believe the state of California does not reflect and respect their values … and education is right at the top.”