For years, California Democrats have defended their landmark program to put ethnic studies classes in high schools across the state.
In the face of national right-wing media attacks and local critics, the state’s governing supermajority passed a law in 2021 making ethnic studies a graduation requirement, which supports school boards to develop their own curricula for the courses.
But one particular area of study threatens to unravel the Democratic consensus: Palestine.
In the past year, state lawmakers have teamed up with community groups and the lobbying coalition Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, or JPAC, in a push to regulate the ethnic studies program. They’re aiming to pass a law that curbs local school board control over ethnic studies curricula in response to classwork focusing on the history of Israel and Palestine that they say has promoted unprecedented bigotry against Jewish…