Original: February 22, 2025 | Updated: May 7, 2025

[Read the Full Bill Text] | [TAKE ACTION: Oppose This Dangerous Bill]

SUMMARY

Last night, Assemblymembers Rick Chavez Zbur and Dawn Addis, supported by the entire California Legislative Jewish Caucus, introduced AB 1468, a new ethnic studies bill unlike anything we’ve seen in years. It’s a harmful bill that narrows students’ education to select “priority” ethnic groups, excluding many Californians and needlessly dividing our communities.

This bill’s backward timeline puts chaos before clarity, the new advisory committee it seeks to establish threatens the introduction of more extreme bias, and the extra “guardrails” pile on pointless rules that no one ever enforces. Worse yet, AB 1468 cements this dangerous course of study into California’s education code with new content standards, further entrenching ethnic studies-related bias.

Notably, AB 1468 is also the first ethnic studies bill in California to explicitly cite four “priority” ethnicities, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans, in operative legislative language—sidelining and downgrading every student outside those lines.

When the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel triggered a firestorm of antisemitism across California public schools in 2024—fueled in large part by activist teachers and their unions exploiting ethnic studies loopholes and lack of enforcement, we expected serious action in response. For the Jewish Caucus to answer this crisis in 2025 with an ethnic studies bill like AB 1468 is offensive and is a callous insult to every family hurt by the confusion created by ethnic studies laws and policies.

Of the bill’s 29 sponsors, 16 are from the California Legislative Jewish Caucus—over 55% of the total— dwarfing the six that come exclusively from the Latino Caucus. Just four sponsors come from the Women’s Caucus, two from the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus, and two from the Progressive Caucus.

Critically, the bill’s introducers, Zbur and Addis, and principal coauthors Gabriel, Becker, and Wiener—all Jewish Caucus members— cement this as a Jewish Caucus-led effort, with more than half the sponsors and 100% of key leadership roles tied to this one caucus.

We’re also alarmed that Assemblymember Zbur told EdSource in December 2024, “We actually have faith that the education unions and our colleagues want to ensure that we meet the goals of ethnic studies in a manner that’s appropriate for all students, including Jewish students,” yet just months later, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the largest teachers union in Zbur’s district, has sparked outrage with an antisemitism training backed by Jewish Voice for Peace and other groups known for pushing anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric.

In fact, on the same day that AB 1468 was introduced, over 100 Los Angeles area rabbis, along with major Jewish organizations, condemned UTLA’s training as antisemitic. Equally troubling, the bill’s sponsors seem oblivious to Abigail Shrier’s October 2024 exposé, ‘The Kinderfada Revolution,’ which revealed UTLA’s push to indoctrinate students against Israel.

These blind spots prove that AB 1468’s is reckless, threatening more division and hate in our schools when we should be prioritizing safety and inclusion. This bill should be drastically revised or withdrawn entirely.

WHAT THE BILL DOES

As outlined in Assembly Bill 1468, introduced on February 21, 2025, and titled “Ethnic studies: content standards, curriculum frameworks, instructional materials, and compliance monitoring,” the bill makes the following specific provisions, referencing the California Education Code it amends or adds:

• Establishes Content Standards for Ethnic Studies: AB 1468 adds Article 9 (commencing with Section 60160) to Chapter 1 of Part 33 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the California Education Code. It mandates that the State Board of Education develop and adopt content standards for ethnic studies courses in California high schools, specifically focusing on the histories, cultures, and contributions of African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Native American, and Hispanic/Latino (Chicanx) communities, with these standards to be completed by January 1, 2028 (Section 60160).
• Creates Curriculum Frameworks and Materials: The bill requires the State Board of Education, in consultation with an advisory committee of experts in the specified ethnic studies fields, to review and recommend curriculum frameworks and instructional materials for ethnic studies, also by January 1, 2028, under the newly added Section 60161 of the Education Code.
• Mandates Local Curriculum Submission: It stipulates that local educational agencies must submit their ethnic studies curricula and instructional materials to the State Department of Education by June 30, 2026, as outlined in Section 60164 of the newly added Article 9, to ensure compliance with the state’s framework, oddly, even before the final standards are adopted in 2028.
• Establishes Compliance Monitoring: The bill directs the Department of Education to monitor compliance with these ethnic studies requirements annually, reporting five-year trends of select districts only to the Legislature and posting findings online.
• Forms an Advisory Committee: It expresses legislative intent for subsequent legislation to establish an advisory committee, with a majority of members being experts in African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Native American, and Hispanic/Latino studies, to provide input on developing the content standards and instructional materials, as noted in Section 60162 of the newly added Article 9.

These provisions build on AB 101 (2021), which mandated ethnic studies courses starting in the 2025-2026 school year, by operationalizing and standardizing that requirement within the Education Code. The bill does not amend or reference other existing Education Code sections (e.g., those for other identity groups like disabilities or socioeconomic status) and focuses exclusively on the four ethnic groups, without explicit enforcement mechanisms beyond monitoring.

WHY ITS BAD

AB 1468 sounds like it’s about fairness, but it’s narrowing our kids’ education to just four ethnic groups, leaving out so many others and creating more division than unity. Here’s why we’re against it:

1. Backwards Timeline: The Legislature is forcing our students to take the class before their district creates a curriculum before the state sets the standards. AB 1468’s timeline is a disaster, forcing our kids into ethnic studies classes this year—2025—under AB 101, before its own rules even exist. It delays content standards until January 2028, yet demands curriculum plans by June 2026, flipping logic on its head and throwing our classrooms into chaos (Bill Text – AB-1468, Sections 60160, 60164). This backwards mess leaves teachers and students scrambling without clear guidance, opening the door for confusion that activist teachers, like those at United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), have already shown they’ll exploit—sparking division, as seen in Santa Ana’s lawsuits and Palo Alto’s tensions (Shrier, October 2024; Voice of OC, February 11, 2025).
2. New Content Standards Open Door to New Bias: AB 1468’s new content standards—due in 2028—sound fresh alarms about bias, echoing the firestorm over the 2019 original Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC). That first draft, blasted as far-left propaganda, antisemitic, and divisive, omitted Jewish experiences, vilified Israel, equated capitalism with racism, and glorified militant figures, sparking outrage from Jewish groups and even progressive lawmakers. Despite revisions, the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMC) pushes this controversial 2019 framework, infiltrating districts like Santa Ana and Palo Alto with taxpayer-funded consulting, risking the same hate in AB 1468’s standards. With the advisory committee stacked with experts from just four ethnic groups, there’s no guarantee this cycle of extremism won’t repeat, threatening our students with skewed lessons.
3. Compliance Monitoring is Weak: AB 1468’s compliance monitoring, with an unknown start date, is dangerously weak, leaving our kids unprotected from bias and division. It piles on vague oversight with empty promises ignored by districts (Bill Text – AB-1468, Section 60163). This failure let the 2024 antisemitism surge, driven by activist teachers exploiting ethnic studies gaps, spiral unchecked, as seen in Santa Ana’s lawsuits over antisemitic lessons and Palo Alto’s community fights over exclusion (ADL, July 8, 2024; JTA, February 21, 2025; Voice of OC, February 11, 2025). This toothless system risks locking in hate and division, not fixing them, when our schools need real protection most.
4. Dividing, Not Uniting: Ethnic studies, as pushed by AB 1468, isn’t uniting our kids—it’s tearing them apart, proven toxic in communities like Palo Alto and beyond. In Palo Alto, the 2024-2025 pilot sparked fierce battles: parents and the Palo Alto Parent Alliance, with over 1,400 signatures, demanded a pause, fearing a “liberated” curriculum focused on an oppressive oppressor/oppressed framework, white supremacy, and anti-Israel bias, leaving Jewish and other students feeling targeted amid 2024’s antisemitism surge. PAUSD documents, like the draft curriculum reviewed in May 2024, glorify “resistance” and even “violent resistance,” raising concern about teaching hate, not history—fueling protests and lawsuits over secrecy and division. The board’s January 2025 3-2 vote to mandate it, despite Superintendent Don Austin’s January 2025 pause due to a lack of funding in the proposed budget, deepened the rift (Palo Alto Online, January 24, 2025). In Santa Ana, the course was scrapped in February 2025 after lawsuits claimed antisemitic content, dividing Latino, Asian, and poor families (Voice of OC, February 11, 2025). Berkeley’s pilot left students feeling judged by race, not connected, post-October 2023 (Berkeleyside, September 2021, ongoing).

POTENTIAL REVISIONS (Updated Feb 23 2025)

We can’t support AB 1468 as is, but here’s what could work to protect our kids and fix its flaws—striking everything but Sections 60163 and 60164, and tweaking Section 60165 for real change. [Note these revisions do not necessarily reflect the full extent of future amendments that may be suggested. These are conversation starters only.]

1. Keep Section 60163’s guardrails, even though they are redundant.
2. Retain Section 60164’s requirement for local districts to submit ethnic studies curricula but make it an annual submission or upon modification.
3. Rewrite Section 60165 to mandate the Department of Education conduct an immediate audit of all schools that may have voluntarily implemented ethnic studies courses or pilots.

TALKING POINTS

“Ethnic studies is already moving, so we might as well accept that it’s going to happen and influence the outcome as much as possible.”

Our Response: Just because a policy may seem to have momentum, there’s no reason to help it along if it’s toxic, divisive, and redundant. AB 1468’s locks our kids into a course that’s already splitting communities—like Santa Ana’s lawsuits over antisemitism and Palo Alto’s protests over bias (Voice of OC, February 11, 2025; EdSource, January 27, 2025). After the 2024 antisemitism surge, fueled by activist teachers and shaky rules (ADL, July 8, 2024), doubling down on this flawed system isn’t progress—it’s reckless, risking more hate when our schools need unity.

“We really want the compliance and transparency measures, but in order to get those, we need to trade the advisory council and the content standards with ethnic studies supporters.”

Our Response: The State, through its various bodies, departments, and agencies, has shown that it has no interest in oversight or using its existing powers to ensure compliance with existing law or consistency within its own educational code. Why should we trust new and redundant forms of compliance when existing ones are being ignored?

“I support learning about different peoples and cultures; ethnic studies is a way to learn about others, diminishing this course is diminishing the stories of diverse California.”

Our Response: That’s multicultural education, not this divisive ethnic studies push. AB 1468 doesn’t broaden stories—it narrows them to four ethnic groups, sidelining Jewish, Middle Eastern, Sikh, mixed-race and other Californians (Bill Text – AB-1468). Pilot failures in Berkeley, Santa Ana, and Palo Alto prove it fosters resentment, not understanding—diminishing diversity, not celebrating it.