Some education leaders are saying a new law signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom—banning school boards from excluding books with topics related to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation—strips local control away from communities and complicates the work of local school districts and will be costly.
The new law, Assembly Bill 1078, additionally requires a two-thirds vote by a school board to exclude a book for any other reason, as well as audits of library and classroom books, with potential fines for districts that have insufficient diverse instructional materials, per California Department of Education’s standards.
