California to Outlaw Book Bans
AB 1078, passed the Assembly in May by a 61-17 margin, and the Senate last week by a 31-9 margin. Under the bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Corey Jackson (D-Moreno), school boards will be financially penalized if they vote to ban books or educational materials related to Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, and LGBTQ topics — provided those topics are part of the school’s approved curriculum, reports Los Angeles-based CW affiliate KTLA.The bill was sparked by a controversy in the Temecula Valley Unified School District, in which the board’s conservative members rejected an elementary school social studies curriculum over supplemental materials that mentioned Harvey Milk as the state’s first openly gay elected official, with the board president dubbing the former San Francisco Supervisor a “pedophile.”State officials blasted the board and threatened legal actions and fines, prompting the board to backtrack and adopt the approved state curriculum.