PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CALIFORNIA.  Just as we see indications that the country is turning away from wokism, and also welcoming parents back into schools, the commissars of California show that the leftist crackpots are still with us.  It's incredible to believe that this is the state where Ronald Reagan was once governor.  From Fox: 

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on Monday new legislation that gives more control to the state government in order to prevent local school districts from banning books, curriculum, or instruction material deemed as inclusive or diverse. 

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond sponsored and pushed for the passage of AB 1078 amid a wave of local school boards adopting policies related to the LGBTQ community. 

"Dangerous trends have emerged recently," Thurmond said in a press release sent on September 15th. "A small group of extremists has sought to divide communities by advancing policies to ban books related to civil rights for communities of color and the LGBTQ+ community, to force school districts to ‘out’ LGBTQ+ students, and to restrict inclusive curriculum. We needed to act quickly and reject these polices." 

The press release also noted how districts would be fined for "has insufficient instructional materials, especially in an attempt to discriminate against students of color or LGBTQ+ students."

AB 1078, also known as "Instructional materials and curriculum: diversity," would authorize a complaint against a school board for having insufficient textbooks or instructional materials as a result of policies being enacted or an omission by a school board. The law will be effective immediately. 

Thurmond's office gave FOX News Digital a couple of examples of "insufficient instructional materials."

"One example of insufficient instructional materials would be including a modern American History textbook that doesn’t even contain information about our last three U.S. Presidents.

"Another example would be removing a section (or pages) from historical textbooks that aim to exclude information about a prominent Civil Rights leader in the LGBTQ+ community," Thurmond's office said. 

The legislation's author, Assemblymember Dr. Corey Jackson, told FOX News Digital that 'insufficient instructions materials" is when school resources "do not adequately align with California's core academic content standards of its curriculum framework."

Jackson added that it can encompass materials that "lack diverse perspectives, fail to represent required subject matter, or do not meet the content and update cycles outlined in the curriculum framework adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE)." 

"It's essential to ensure that instructional materials provide a comprehensive and standards-aligned educational experience for students," Jackson said.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  We can read between the lines.  The law pushes parental influence out of the schools and replaces it with state-run agitprop.  It is the stuff of authoritarianism.  And it has the support of a governor who would like very much to be president. 

We wait for a legal challenge to the law.  If the law survives it will, unfortunately, serve as an example for other blue states to use to crush the parents' movement.

September 28,  2023