Amendments Protecting Pro-Palestine Speech in California Schools Face Backlash

A bill introduced in the California legislature meant to help ensure open discussion in the state’s public schools and protect teachers from attacks is facing intense backlash and demands for its withdrawal from pro-Israel groups.

Assembly Bill (AB) 2159 would make targeted amendments to a school discrimination law passed year. That law, AB 715, was championed by California’s Legislative Jewish Caucus (LJC) and expands the state’s authority to ban instructional material in K-12 schools based on ill-defined standards. Critics argue that it undermines the rollout of ethnic studies classes and censors Palestine-related speech and instructional materials in schools. At least one pro-Israel group is already citing AB 715 in a landmark antisemitism lawsuit against the state of California that could stifle speech in classrooms statewide.

“The Legislative Jewish Caucus tried to pass a bill that they claim was designed to address antisemitism. But in reality, the bill was designed to censor open and fair teaching on Israel and Palestine,” Seth Morrison told Truthout. “It was broadly opposed.”

Morrison is a spokesperson for Jewish Voice for Peace’s (JVP) Bay Area chapter and an organizer with the California Coalition to Defend Public Education (CCDPE), a diverse coalition of over 100 civil rights and racial justice organizations, religious congregations, and groups of parents, educators, and students that began organizing against AB 715.

AB 715 came as part of a yearslong series of legislative efforts introduced by LJC members, a group of lawmakers known for its pro-Israel bent, targeting public schools. Rather than defining antisemitism itself, AB 715 calls for using the controversial Biden-era United States National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism to inform decision-making; that white paper, in turn, references the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The bill also created a governor-appointed Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator position.

AB 715 also requires that classroom instruction “be factually accurate,” a term critics argue is subjective and exposes schools and teachers to complaints. While the phrase may sound harmless, requiring “factually accurate” instruction while punishing teachers for statements about Palestine rooted in materials from trusted sources, for example, the fact that Amnesty International has labeled Israel an apartheid state, places educators in an impossible position.

Theresa Montaño, a member of the California Faculty Association (CFA) and a former public school teacher who now teaches Chicano/a Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, characterizes AB 715 as an attack on California teachers. “They’re losing the right to be able to teach the truth,” she told Truthout.

Many of the law’s critics, including lawmakers, also took issue with the process through which AB 715 was passed last year. After members of the Assembly Education Committee raised concerns about the bill, a half-formed version of it was nonetheless allowed to pass out of committee last May with an understanding that a second vote would be taken on an amended version later in the year. The bill’s co-authors, Dawn Addis and Rick Chavez Zbur, amended the bill, but those amendments were negotiated privately with other lawmakers. Addis and Zbur chose not to meet with many of the stakeholders who expressed concerns.

Then, as the legislative session waned, the anticipated second vote of the Assembly Education Committee was not allowed owing to the time crunch and inflexible procedural rules. Assemblymember Mia Bonta said in a September 12 committee hearing that she had been “robbed” of her right to vote on the bill.

During that same meeting, Committee Chair Al Muratsuchi characterized the legislation as an effort to “attack education [and] suppress critical thinking [and] open discussion in our classrooms.” When the bill went to the floor later that same day, Assemblymember Robert Garcia argued that it “reinforces broader national trends of silencing constitutionally protected speech, erasing historically relevant curriculum, and persecuting anyone who expresses even the slightest opposition to the federal administration.”

Although Muratsuchi and Garcia criticized AB 715, both abstained rather than vote against it. This is a common tactic of California Democrats, who hold a supermajority in the legislature and prefer not to be seen voting against their political colleagues’ bills. Seven other Democrats also abstained, while 71 lawmakers, including every Republican in the assembly, voted in favor.

After Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 715 into law in October, CCDPE members vowed to continue working with lawmakers to address their concerns. That effort has coalesced in AB 2159, which Assemblymember Garcia announced in March. The new bill would remove reference to the IHRA definition of antisemitism, require the Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator to be selected through an unbiased, merit-based civil service process rather than based on political affiliation, and remove vague and subjective language such as the requirements that materials “be factually accurate” and instruction “be consistent with accepted standards of professional responsibility.”

“[AB] 2159 directly addresses concerns that the sponsors of AB 715 promised to address in this legislative session,” Morrison told Truthout. Indeed, Addis and Zbur told their colleagues in final committee meetings last year that they would work to address some of the issues raised about AB 715 this year.

This month, Addis and Zbur introduced a bill that would make some changes to AB 715. But both Montaño and Morrison told Truthout it does not go far enough. The new bill maintains the term “factually accurate” and adds a requirement that the superintendent “ensure that local educational agencies omit all violating portions of the instructional materials.” Critics argue that enforcing that requirement using AB 715’s vague standards will be damagingly burdensome and costly for districts.

“Many of our organizations have sent out opposition to the bill based on the fact that ‘factually accurate’ remains … there’s so much contradiction in that phrase,” Montaño told Truthout.

Montaño and Morrison also said the lawmakers have not met with CCDPE members to discuss further changes, despite outreach from the coalition. Neither Addis nor Zbur responded to Truthout’s requests for comment before deadline.

Meanwhile, pro-Israel groups are attacking AB 2159. A letter published in March by Jewish California, formerly the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, calls on Garcia to withdraw the bill. The letter accuses CFA, a member of CCDPE, of targeting the Jewish community and “ha[ving] an antisemitism problem.”

While Addis and Zbur’s bill moves forward, AB 2159 is still pending referral by the Assembly Rules Committee before it can be heard. The reason for the holdup is unclear, but Morrison told Truthout, “We are very concerned that the democratic process is once again being stymied.”

Recently, CFA and the California branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations published an explainer to counter Jewish California’s letter. That publication highlights how Jewish California weaponizes accusations of antisemitism in a bid to discredit the faculty group and AB 2159. That same tactic has already been used to attack and silence California educators, and AB 715 has thrown new fuel on the fire.

“Teachers have told us that they have been warned that if they discuss Palestine at all, or are at all critical of Israel, there will be complaints filed against them or they will be brought up on charges,” Morrison told Truthout. “They’re now being told that this is because of AB 715, so the bill is designed to create an atmosphere of fear.”

Zionist organizations are also using the bill to pressure schools to roll back teaching on Palestine. One such group, the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (ACES), began emailing school administrators with instructions on “preparing for AB 715 compliance” almost as soon as the bill passed. ACES positions itself in direct opposition to a critical or liberated approach to ethnic studies, which it claims promotes a “militant, anti-Western agenda [and] views history and civics entirely through a racial lens.”

The organization’s outreach around AB 715 gives “Free Palestine” flags and other Palestine-related visuals as examples of “discriminatory” classroom material. It claims that “the district must take corrective action” if such material is discovered in a classroom, even if no student complains about or experiences harm from it, according to emails obtained through public records requests and reviewed by Truthout.

In February, the Louis D. Brandeis Center, another pro-Israel group, also cited AB 715 in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the state of California, alleging that the state’s “public schools are awash with anti-Semitic slurs, harassment and assaults but state authorities refuse to intervene.”

Previously, the Brandeis Center succeeded in stopping ethnic studies classes in California’s Santa Ana Unified School District based on claims that the curriculum showed anti-Jewish bias. It also settled a suit against the University of California, Berkeley, with an agreement that mandates the school adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, crack down on campus protests, and strengthen relationships with Israeli institutions.

JVP-Bay Area has launched a letter-writing campaign aiming to discourage lawmakers from acquiescing to a similar agreement in the Brandeis Center’s lawsuit against the state.

“It’s an attempt to silence academic freedom, to promote censorship, [and] to silence the opposition voices,” Montaño said of the attacks. She fears legislators may be taking a page from the same playbook with last year’s effort to pass AB 715 and this year’s apparent slow-walking of AB 2159.

“It is an example of a lack of democracy or a selective democracy, and that’s what’s scary,” Montaño told Truthout. “It’s not a democratic way of making sure that all voices are heard.”