Protecting Arab American Heritage
The Dangers of CA Assembly Bill 1468
What’s Happening
While April is Arab American Heritage month, the history of Arab Americans is being threatened with a new ethnic studies bill in California.
California Assemblymembers Dawn Addis (D-30) and Rick Zbur (D-51) recently introduced Ab1468, a problematic bill designed to undermine ethnic studies courses in California.
If passed, this bill will redefine ethnic studies on political terms, and erase the study of histories for many minority groups - especially Arab Americans, Muslims, and Sikhs, who are not listed as a protected minority group under the bill.
About the Bill
AB 1468 is a deeply problematic bill that seeks to undermine Ethnic Studies in California by stripping control from educators and scholars, imposing political censorship, and erasing critical histories.
Disguised as a bill that would protect students from bias and improve Ethnic Studies curricula—it is actually an attempt to restrict the teaching of race, history, and global justice struggles.
This bill seeks to redefine Ethnic Studies on political terms, diluting its integrity and erasing histories such as the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine and the genocide in Gaza.
Read the full bill text here: Bill Text - AB-1468 Ethnic studies: content standards, curriculum frameworks, instructional materials, and compliance monitoring.
Problems with the Bill
AB 1468 creates unfunded mandates that burden already overextended educators.
The bill establishes new compliance, monitoring, and reporting requirements without ensuring funding. Districts are under-resourced, and teachers are already stretched thin.
The bill’s added mandates will fall hardest on schools serving working-class and marginalized communities, the very places where Ethnic Studies is most needed.
AB 1468 mirrors the Trump administration’s attacks on education and broader right-wing tactics being used to attack free speech across the U.S.
This bill adopts the same strategies used by Republican legislators to restrict classroom discussion and punish educators.
Public posting of materials, limits on theoretical frameworks, and centralized control are tactics pulled directly from the playbook of anti-critical race theory laws.
California cannot present itself as a progressive state while replicating these repressive, MAGA-like attacks on free speech and education.
Ethnic Studies teachers are already facing harassment, doxxing, and job threats.
Students report being afraid to speak openly about their identities or to enroll in classes perceived as “controversial.” AB 1468 will only intensify these chilling effects.
AB 1468 removes local control of Ethnic Studies Curriculum, undermines educators, and wastes state resources.
AB 1468 mandates the creation of new content standards for Ethnic Studies even though California has already invested significant resources into developing Ethnic Studies content standards and the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.
The Model Curriculum adopted by the State Board of Education in 2021, was the result of years of consultation with educators, scholars and community members. It offers robust guidance on curriculum development and instructional materials and was designed to be flexible, community-responsive, and aligned with the discipline’s scholarly foundations.
As a multidisciplinary and locally grounded field, Ethnic Studies cannot be reduced to one set of standards without erasing the complexity and diversity it is meant to reflect. Standardizing content contradicts the field’s purpose and undermines the professional judgment of educators who already follow rigorous academic and pedagogical frameworks. By shifting authority to the State Board of Education and the Instructional Quality Commission, bodies without direct ties to Ethnic Studies, this bill undermines experts and restricts the teaching of meaningful Ethnic Studies.
AB 1468 enables political censorship of ethnic studies curriculum.
Ethnic Studies was designed to challenge dominant, colonial narratives of history and provide an honest, comprehensive, and inclusive representation of marginalized communities. It encourages students to critically examine colonization, imperialism, and systemic oppression.
AB 1468 undermines this core objective and dismisses the work of educators through politically driven censorship.
This bill paves the way for ideological erasure under the guise of standardization. The result is not consistency, but political censorship. AB 1468 will discourage honest inquiry and marginalize the very voices Ethnic Studies intended to center.
Ethnic Studies equips students to grapple with the complexities of history. That means teaching about the Holocaust, slavery, and the internment of Japanese Americans. It also means teaching about the Nakba, the ongoing occupation of Palestine, and anti-Palestinian racism. To sanitize this history is to effectively deny it.
Take Action
Tell your Assembly members and Senators to reject AB 1468 and protect ethnic studies in California.
Critics of the Bill
While the bill is backed by Pro-Israel groups, critics of the bill include Pro-Palestine groups, Anti-Hate organizations, and educators alike, as the bill threatens to take decision making power away from educators for political censorship.
The following groups have been vocal on their opposition to Ab 1468:
CPHB Statement
History may be written by the victors, but that doesn’t mean the truth has been recorded. And in the case of AB 1468, it is the comprehensive view that is sacrificed at the altar of a single narrative. Cultural and ethnic studies should not be a zero sum game, where we undercut the identity of one heritage and history by favoring another’s version of historical events. Education by its very nature is the exchange of ideas that may disturb long held beliefs. Dawm Addis' statement that "for ethnic studies to fulfill its promise, we must ensure that every child is embraced, respected and valued" is something all of us can universally agree upon.
But underneath this verbiage that champions inclusivity and respect for all lies the strategic irony of marginalization and alienation of a growing population of Arab and Muslim students in public schools throughout California. These children are paying the price of a political machine that encroaches on the autonomy of our educators and the integrity of educational principles they have vowed to uphold.
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