A member of the public addresses the Temecula Valley Unified school board Tuesday during a discussion of the adoption of a new history-social studies textbook.
Source: Temecula Valley Unified webcast
Less than 24 hours after the Temecula Valley Unified school board again rejected the adoption of a new social studies textbook, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday he has ordered the purchase of the K-5 textbook Social Studies Alive! and would bill the district $1.6 million for the cost.
He also added a $1.5 million fine that, at least for the moment, he lacks the authority to impose.
“The three political activists on the school board have yet again proven they are more interested in breaking the law than doing their jobs of educating students — so the state will do their job for them,” said Newsom in a press release.
The announcement amps up the volume in the dispute between Newsom and a three-member conservative majority that took over control of the five-member board in December.
Joseph Komrosky, the president of the board, cited the inclusion in supplementary materials of Harvey Milk, the first gay politician elected in California whom Komrosky disparaged as a “pedophile,” as a reason for vetoing the textbook.
This year, Newsom, a strong advocate for LGBTQ rights, proclaimed May 22 as Harvey Milk Day to honor the activist and San Francisco city supervisor who was assassinated in 1978.
Anticipating that Newsom would go ahead and send the books to the district, as he had already vowed, Komrosky said Tuesday that he had directed the district to send them back. Interim Superintendent Kimberly Velez reminded him that to do so, the board would have to vote at a future meeting. Velez took over after the three-member majority fired existing Supt. Jodi McClay without citing a reason last month.
During the raucous meeting that reflected bitter divisions in the 28,000-student district in Riverside County, the board majority repeated a similar vote two months ago. It rebuffed the recommendation of 47 district teachers in a review committee to buy the K-5 textbook Social Studies Alive!
Board member Allison Barclay, one of the two dissenters, criticized the rejection of the teachers’ recommendation.
“Tonight is another example of the division being caused by this board. It’s really unfortunate,” she said. “I have been open to working together. It isn’t happening. Logic doesn’t work. Compromise doesn’t work.”
The textbook for elementary grades is one of four that the state board authorized in 2017. Temecula Valley teachers taught it in 18 schools during a nine-week pilot program. Parents were allowed to review the materials in March and April; nearly all of those who did were either supportive or neutral about it, the committee reported.
The board’s decision leaves the district with a 2006 textbook that doesn’t meet the current California History-Social Studies Framework or incorporate the 2012 California FAIR Education Act, which requires that social studies curriculums acknowledge the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, along with individuals with disabilities and other ethnic and racial groups.
In the past, the state cited a district’s shortage of textbooks for all students as the cause to order districts to buy a sufficient number. Newsom is applying the term insufficiency to textbooks that fail to meet current content requirements.
Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon acknowledged this was an unusual, if not unprecedented application. “The state has rarely – if ever – dealt with a governing board so willfully flouting state laws and the basic standards of school governance,” he wrote in an email. “The board — derelict in its statutory duty — is bigfooting educators and parents, who overwhelmingly supported, and requested the adoption of the updated curriculum.”
An unknown number of districts are also using outdated textbooks or early literacy curriculums with disproven reading techniques. Gardon said the administration doesn’t intend to respond similarly to them.
“What’s happening in Temecula is unique, and the governor’s goal is to keep it that way,” Gardon wrote. The response is warranted by the board’s “derelict” response to the teachers’ overwhelming recommendation, he said.
Gardon said the state has the authority to order sufficient textbooks and to deduct the money from a district’s school funding. He acknowledged that the authority to levy a penalty will depend on the passage of Assembly Bill 1078, authored by Assemblyman Corey Jackson, D-Perris. It would reaffirm “the power to ensure that local educational agencies comply with laws supporting pupils’ right to receive accurate and inclusive education in California’s schools.”
As currently drafted, the bill would build on an existing process for the public to file a complaint against a school district for insufficient textbooks. If found in violation, the county would order up-to-date curriculum materials and bill the district. If a board continually fails to remedy the problem, the state could impose a fine equal to the funding a district receives from the state for instructional materials. For good measure, the district would be required to post public notices listing the names of negligent board members.
Newsom: pass it with urgency
Newsom and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond back the bill, which may be amended over the next several weeks in response to concerns by school organizations. Newsom favors adding an urgency clause so that the bill would take effect immediately upon passage.
Troy Flint, chief communications officer of the California School Boards Association, said CSBA would review Newsom’s statement and “will be advocating on the issue outside of a public debate.”
Komrosky could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But at the meeting Tuesday, the other two members of the majority indicated they remained open to adopting Social Studies Alive! – but not before the opening of school, as Newsom demanded.
Board member Jennifer Wiersma said she wanted to hear from more parents who hadn’t participated in the pilot project. She said she was concerned there was no mention in the textbooks of “American exceptionalism” – the view dating back to its founding that America is a unique and special nation – and dissenting views on global warming.
“I don’t see all the things we need to see. We are going to hit the standards, but if we are totally going to utilize (the new textbook), we need to talk about bias. I don’t see a fair and balanced viewpoint. I don’t see the civics.”
Board member Danny Gonzalez said he would approve the proposed curriculum if the board adopted a policy prohibiting the discussion of sex or sexuality preferences through the fourth grade.
Dean Broyles, an attorney who focuses on constitutional issues involving religious freedom and founded the nonprofit National Center for Law and Policy in Escondido, said AB 1078 would significantly erode the power of districts, under local control, to decide what it must teach and at what grade.
“Under the FAIR Act, school boards could decide when it is age-appropriate to introduce LGBTQ issues,” he said. “The majority of the Temecula Valley board is saying, ‘We don’t want to use this book for kindergartners through fifth graders.’ They’re not saying we’re not going to comply with the FAIR Act.”
“What AB 1078 does,” Broyles said, “is give the California Department of Education and county offices of education the authority to monitor school districts and enforce compliance with the law based on viewpoints on LGBTQ issues that many Californians disagree with.”
The article incorrectly stated that attorney Dean Broyles had been involved with school litigation; his bio has been updated.