Southern California school board votes to accept state social studies curriculum, with a catch

SCHOOL BOARD BACKS OFF AFTER NEWSOM’S $1.5 MILLION THREAT

Days after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to fine a Southern California school district $1.5 million over its rejection of a state-approved social studies curriculum, the school board unanimously voted to adopt a compromise version of the curriculum on Friday.

The Temecula Valley Unified School Board held an emergency meeting to adopt the elementary curriculum, though it will pull one fourth grade unit that discusses the gay rights movement for further review, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In May, the school board voted 3-2 to reject the elementary social studies curriculum that mentions gay rights activist Harvey Milk, and did so again last week. School board President Joseph Komrosky referred to California’s first openly gay elected official as a “pedophile” and questioned why he would be featured, calling it “morally reprehensible,” The Bee reported.

Newsom condemned the decision and entered the state into a contract to buy the textbooks for the school, calling the school board’s vote a “willful violation of the law.”

The Newsom-Temecula tête-à-tête was just part of another turbulent week in California school board politics.

On Thursday, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond was thrown out of a meeting of Chino Valley Unified School Board after condemning a proposed policy that requires schools to notify parents if a child identifies as transgender. The board voted 4-1 in favor.

“I don’t mind being thrown out of a board meeting by extremists. I can take the heat — it’s part of the job. What I can’t accept is the mistreatment of vulnerable students whose privacy is being taken away,” Thurmond tweeted on Thursday.

Thurmond came to participate in the public comment period but was cut off mid-speech and led out by security guards, the Press Enterprise reported.

Attendees in the audience cheered as Board President Sonja Shaw chastised Thurmond.

“We’re here because of people like you. You’re in Sacramento proposing things that pervert children,” said Shaw after his mic was cut.

LGBT advocates oppose policies like the one the school board passed because they can endanger transgender students whose families may not accept them.

“While many parents are accepting of their LGBTQ+ children, for those with parents that have anti LGBTQ+ views (being outed) can lead to abuse, neglect, or being asked to leave their home,” said Alexis Sanchez, director of advocacy at the Sacramento LGBT Center. “About 1 in 6 youth experiencing homelessness in Sacramento identify as LGBTQ+ and for many of them, their experience with homelessness started with being outed to unaccepting parents and being asked to leave their home.”

The ACLU says that children and adults have “a constitutional right not to have intimate facts about their lives disclosed without their consent,” and that this includes gender.

SOME UNDOCUMENTED FARMWORKERS TO GET FREE LEGAL ASSISTANCE

Gov. Gavin Newsom is allocating $4.5 million to pay for immigration legal assistance for farmworkers in California. Immigrants working on farms under state investigation for labor, health or safety violations are eligible.

Three-quarters of farmworkers in California are estimated to be undocumented, according to the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. Hiring a lawyer to help fill out forms and file applications can cost $250 to $800, according to the U.S. Law Center.

“Undocumented farm workers – who form such a large and essential portion of our nation’s workforce – must be able to enforce their rights without the threat of immigration retaliation,” said Diana Tellefson Torres, chief executive officer of the UFW Foundation, a farmworker advocacy group, in a press release.

But paying for legal assistance isn’t the only barrier facing farmworkers seeking to legally immigrate, said Merced Barrera, worker resource legal director at the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.

According to Barrera, most central valley counties with high populations of farmworkers have very few immigration attorneys, let alone Spanish-speaking ones. There’s only in all of Merced County.

“You see that the demand in the Central Valley is really high, but the supply of immigration attorneys is super low,” she said. “Are they going to invest in attracting more immigration attorneys to the Central Valley or building the capacity of the very few law firms?”

The funding announced last week goes toward case review services, legal advice and representation — not legal workforce development.

Since 2015, California’s Department of Social Services has given about $45 million annually in funding to local nonprofits around the state to pay for legal services for immigrants. Since 2019, the state has invested $10 million annually to help community college students apply for or renew their status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

This year, Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Merced, introduced legislation to create a path to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers and stabilize California’s agricultural workforce. The legislation, like many similar bills before it, failed to advance to the assembly for vote.

CALIFORNIA GETS NEARLY $25 MILLION FOR OUTDOOR RECREATION

California received $24.8 million — more than any other state — to fund outdoor recreation initiatives.

The funding comes from the National Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund and goes toward projects like new park playgrounds, trails, sports fields and community gardens. California’s Department of Parks and Recreation distributes the funding through a competitive grant process. The Department told The Bee that the grant process is ongoing and grantees have yet to be announced.

In its announcement of the funding, the National Park Service also said they are updating the Land and Water Conservation Fund guidelines to encourage more engagement with tribes and underserved communities. Exactly what the changes are remain unclear; the new guidelines will be released in October, a spokesperson for the NPS said.

Currently, agencies embarking on outdoor recreation projects using this funding are required to consult tribes if the project impacts sites of religious or cultural significance. In California, that means a project manager will send every tribe in the area a description of the project.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“California and #Barbie have more in common than you think. Not only was this iconic character created in Malibu, California, but Barbie also embraces many of the values that make California the Golden State,” tweeted the Office of the Governor of California.

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