California will deliver social studies textbooks to Temecula elementary school students if the school board doesn’t approve them, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday, July 13, in the escalation of a feud pitting the board’s conservative majority against state leaders’ progressive values.
Newsom also threatened to bill the Temecula Valley Unified School District for the textbooks and threw his support behind Inland Assemblymember Corey Jackson’s bill that would fine school districts for not supplying learning materials that conform to state standards.
The Temecula district could be fined about $1.5 million under Jackson’s bill, AB 1078, Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for the governor, said via email.
In an emailed statement, school board President Joseph Komrosky said it is “unfortunate that Governor Newsom and others have seized upon an action by the Temecula Valley Unified School expressly authorized by the California Legislature and mischaracterized not only what has occurred, but why.”
It’s misleading, Komrosky said, to say the board banned a textbook.
Newsom “conveniently ignored” the board’s concerns about how the social studies curriculum was crafted, including whether the community had enough input and whether the curriculum “adequately addressed the needs of English learners and special education students,” Komrosky said.
A revised curriculum is set to be adopted at the school board’s meeting Tuesday, July 18, Komrosky said, adding the board made arrangements for every K-5 student in the district to have a textbook from the existing curriculum when the new school year starts.
“That plan is in place and can be implemented should a new curriculum not be adopted by the Board of Education,” Komrosky added.
The governor’s announcement Thursday marks a new phase in a showdown over an elementary social studies curriculum rejected by district trustees in a 3-2 vote in June because its supplemental materials referenced LGBTQ civil rights leader Harvey Milk, whom Komrosky called a “pedophile.”
That prompted Newsom, a liberal Democrat who routinely and publicly takes on GOP politicians, to call Komrosky “an ignorant person” on Twitter. Komrosky doubled down on his Milk criticism in a news conference responding to the governor.
On Thursday, Newsom, noting the Aug. 14 start of Temecula’s school year, declared that “cancel culture has gone too far in Temecula.”
“Radicalized zealots on the school board rejected a textbook used by hundreds of thousands of students and now children will begin the school year without the tools they need to learn,” the governor said in a news release.
“If the school board won’t do its job by its next board meeting to ensure kids start the school year with basic materials, the state will deliver the book into the hands of children and their parents — and we’ll send the district the bill and fine them for violating state law,” Newsom continued.
The governor “hopes to charge the district for the books after getting (Jackson’s bill) through the Legislature — an urgency measure would take effect immediately after being signed,” POLITICO reported.
Newsom also took to social media to address Temecula parents. The school board’s decision “created a lot of anxiety. The last thing we need is more anxiety,” Newsom said.
A school board in Temecula decided to reject a textbook because it mentioned Harvey Milk.
CA is stepping in.We’re going to purchase the book for these students—the same one that hundreds of thousands of kids are already using.
If these extremist school board members won’t do… pic.twitter.com/r2iirL8b5v
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 13, 2023
“So I want you to know that we’re moving forward,” he said. “The state is moving (and purchasing) those social studies books. Your kids have the freedom to learn and you have the freedom to access those books.”
He added: “Rest assured, we’ll be sending those books down in very short order … let’s do our best, all of us, to soften the edges of these debates and to make sure that we provide accurate information and the freedom for our kids to learn. That, after all, is the California way.”
Newsom’s move has the backing of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Jackson, D-Perris.
“I am glad to join in this action with Governor Newsom today and thank him for his leadership in calling for Temecula’s school board to reverse course to prevent further harm to students,” Thurmond, who visited Temecula last month, said in the governor’s news release.
The release quoted Rivas, who took over as speaker June 30, as saying: “The antics of the Temecula Valley Unified School District are intolerable and damaging to its students’ opportunities to grow, prosper, and succeed. I hope the members of the school board are able to reflect on their decisions and come to make better decisions for our children’s futures.”
Thursday’s announcement comes as Thurmond’s office is investigating the Temecula school district.
In June, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent the district a letter requesting information that led to the board’s vote rejecting a kindergarten through fifth grade social studies curriculum that had been vetted and endorsed by district teachers.
With the backing of a Christian conservative political action committee, Komrosky, Danny Gonzalez and Jen Wiersma last November won a majority of seats on the five-member Temecula school board.
Since then, they’ve banned critical race theory, fired the district’s superintendent and could approve changes to district policy that critics fear could lead to more banned books.
The board’s opponents, who are trying to recall the trio, said the majority is trying to impose a Christian nationalist, anti-LGBTQ agenda on a public school district.
Board members and their supporters argue they’re standing up for parents’ rights and protecting children’s innocence from inappropriate, vulgar and pornographic material such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Angels in America.”
At the June 7 news conference responding to Newsom, Komrosky said when he called Milk a pedophile, he wasn’t referring to Milk’s sexuality, but to reports — chronicled in a Milk biography — that he had a sexual relationship at age 33 with a 16-year-old.
Besides threatening school districts with fines, AB 1078 would require a two-thirds supermajority vote by school boards to ban books. In a California Globe commentary, Wiersma said AB 1078 is “flatly unconstitutional” and “a direct attack on voters.”
“The board has both the right and responsibility to exercise authority and discretion when adopting materials that will be in circulation in the district for 7-10 years,” Wiersma wrote.
“This is how every district in the state curates books. It is not ‘book banning’ as Jackson’s bill lazily asserts.”
She also wrote: “I have nothing but love, compassion, and concern for the families of our district who deserve the very best educational resources. As such, local school boards are uniquely positioned to engage with and obtain important insights about the educational experience of our communities.”
In an email Thursday, Wiersma said the governor is “meddling” in local school governance.
“As a board trustee elected by the voters,” she added, “I believe this announcement and action … disrespects the citizens, families and voters in Temecula Valley and their right to local democratic representation and governance.”