Opinion By Donna Westfall – April 30, 2023
Sparks flew at the Assembly Education Committee this past week when Assemblyman Corey Jackson (D-Riverside) made the case for his bill, AB 1078. In his opening remarks, Jackson said his legislation was necessary to respond to the “book banning” campaign being waged by “white Christian nationalists” in California.
“AB 1078 is a bill that intends to combat the national Christian white supremacist movement which aims to ban books, school curriculum, and even more in our schools,” Jackson told Committee members.”
In reality, it’s ordinary parents he’s opposed to who — across racial, economic and religious demographics — oppose graphic, sexualized content and politicized race-based curricula being pushed in K-12 schools to indoctrinate kids.
Jackson’s bill, as initially proposed, seeks to eliminate the local control of elected school boards and to push parents out of the education equation. Jackson’s legislation would mandate that California’s 944 school boards receive approval from Sacramento bureaucrats at the state Board of Education before removing any offensive materials from classrooms or school libraries, or “ceasing to teach any curriculum.”
Will you please spend a couple minutes on the phone encouraging or demanding our local legislators to VOTE NO on AB 1078. Our Assemblyman is Jim Wood for District 2 and can be contacted at his office:
Humboldt/Del Norte/Trinity:
1036 5th Street
Eureka, CA 95501
Tel: (707) 445-7014
Fax: (707) 445-6607
OR
You can go to his website and fill out a form with your info and your comment.
Information on AB 1078 comes from the California Policy Center (CPC). Their motto, “The California Policy Center promotes prosperity for all Californians through limited government and individual liberty.“
CPC has partnered with groups such as Reform California, the Freedom Foundation, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in campaigns to reduce the power of California’s unions.
To their credit, the CPC represented a teacher in a case following the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus, seeking to reject United Teachers Los Angeles status as the sole bargaining agent for California teachers.
LA Public Schools used to be the epitome of great education, but that stopped decades ago. In a study dated May 2022, California schools were ranked # 44 in the NATION! This is unacceptable. Our tax dollars are not being spent effectively.
Let’s get back to great public education and concentrate on the basics so our children can compete in a global setting.
