Sacramento —

At the center of a chaotic school board meeting in Southern California on Tuesday were two San Francisco Democrats, Gov. Gavin Newsom and murdered gay rights leader Harvey Milk.

At the nine-hour Temecula Valley Unity Conference just after midnight, some angry parents spoke out in support of the school board’s conservative majority and the school board, which went against the state’s standards for inclusive and diverse education.

They portrayed Newsom as a “tyrant” who “imposes his rule” on an unwitting school district, planning to rebel against the school board and send textbooks that mention milk to Temecula students. They called the LGBTQ+ history class “pornographic” and “obscene.”

The controversy began after the board rejected a proposed educational material that referred to Milk, a member of the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors and the first gay man elected to office in California, who was assassinated in 1978. Earlier this year, Newsom declared May 22 as the next day. harvey milk day, It was to honor his work “at great personal risk”.

Conservative Board of Education chairman Joseph Komloski, who called Mr. Milk a “pedophile” and has openly clashed with Mr. Newsom over the issue, on Tuesday asked the sheriff’s deputy to remove a teacher from the meeting who called conservative school board member Danny Gonzalez a “homophobic.”

Mr. Gonzalez said he had no evidence that the proposed guidance would promote pedophilia and opposed guidance on the gay liberation movement that began in the 1960s because “it is not appropriate to discuss sexuality.”

The outrage comes days after the governor threatened to fine Riverside County districts $1.5 million for refusing to adopt compliant textbooks for references to milk.

Tim Thompson, a Temecula preacher, conservative website owner and vocal Newsom critic, said at a school board meeting, “I know you’re doing the right thing for our community when the governor is threatening our community,” to applause from the audience. “He one of the things we have to remember is that locally he has something called control.”

The tumultuous meeting was the confluence of an emotional political debate over the book ban that was unfolding across the country and was the result of Republican efforts to win a majority on the school board.

Temecula and much of southwestern Riverside County are heavily Republican, and their support for former President Trump in the 2020 election has created a rift with California’s Democratic state leaders. In December, the school board voted to ban the teaching of critical race theory.

Newsom State announced Wednesday that the state will enter into a deal to secure school districts’ textbooks in time for the first day of school next month.

“Three school board activists have proven once again that they are more interested in breaking the law than in the work of educating students, so the state will do the work for them,” Newsom said in a statement, reiterating his determination to fine the school district.

A public voice against red state policies, Newsom was so inspired to confront Temecula’s conservatives that he publicly vowed to hold the school district accountable under a law that didn’t yet exist.

he began work in haste law If passed, the bill would give the state new powers over textbooks, a direct response to the controversy in Temecula.

The bill, AB 1078, would allow the state to fine school districts that do not comply with textbook standards and would create a process for the state to purchase “appropriate” educational materials for those districts.

Newsom’s intervention in the matter of the school board, which oversees about 28,000 students, has drawn criticism not only from Republicans, but also from some local officials who agree with California’s textbook law but believe the state has gone too far.

Ali Shafrestani, a lawyer who specializes in California and East Coast education law and a former teacher, said curriculum laws have existed in the state for years, but it was unusual for a governor to be involved at this level. Newsom now joins red state leaders like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. By intervening in local school policy, For completely different reasons, Shafrestani said:

“It’s very unusual for a governor to intervene,” said Shalestani. “It’s a local issue.”

Some say the Temecula incident is so extreme and harmful to students that Newsom’s involvement is necessary.

Christie McClure, a parent of two students in the district, told the school board on Tuesday, “I think it’s pathetic that the governor intervenes when you guys aren’t doing your job.” “It’s not going too far. It’s not a violation of local control. It happens in any company when employees fail to do their job basics. The bosses step in.”

The California Board of Education has met resistance to the sensational bill, arguing that Newsom’s order circumvents the state’s existing textbook production procedures and that he does not have “legal authority” to distribute books in Temecula on behalf of the state.

The group, which supports inclusive education, said the bill should address “unintended negative impacts” on school communities and “mitigate encroachment” on local governance.

Newsom administration spokeswoman Izzie Gurdon said California law already gives the state “broad authority to procure goods for public purposes.”

“Following passage of AB 1078, the state will send curriculum bills to school districts and will fine school districts for violating California law,” he said.

Negotiations are underway between the California Board of Education Association, Newsom, and state legislator Corey Jackson (D-Perris), author of AB 1078.

Mr. Jackson’s bill was revised from its original version and adjusted at the governor’s request to address the controversy in Temecula.

Mr. Jackson’s initial proposal to crack down on school boards trying to ban textbooks received little support. Since the bill was introduced in February, the new lawmaker has made a number of concessions in negotiations with educational bodies, watering down the plan.

That all changed last week when Mr. Newsom swooped in and, with immediate backing from members of Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Toni Atkins (D. San Diego) and House Speaker Robert Rivas (D. Hollister), revived a bill that seemed deadlocked upon Mr. Jackson’s arrival.

“As a writer, this is a dream come true,” Jackson said of the turning point in an interview Monday. “Some of these amendments directly address what we’re seeing in Temecula, but overall, of course, it’s the idea that California is trying to address at this moment. It’s not going away, and we have to start putting some guardrails in place.”

In California, where local school boards have broad powers, education officials who launched a textbook task force last month acknowledged that overseeing enforcement at more than 10,000 schools would be difficult.

There is a “fine line” between enforcing state compliance and interfering in elected school board decisions, said Tim Taylor, executive director of the Association of Small School Districts.

“For local governments, I think this is a slope where they have to die rather than give up local control,” said Taylor. “There are six million children in this state.

But because California has historically relied on local control, it’s not like the school board can break the law, Galdon said.

The state is considered a leader in inclusive education, Extensive curriculum standards Systems that require diversity in school classes, such as comprehensive sex education and mandatory LGBTQ+ history, have been introduced.

Republican strategist Rob Stutzman said Newsom’s push for textbook laws was better for the governor’s political profile than it should be in states with textbook laws already in place.

“This is all culture war politics,” says Stutzmann. “It’s not about policy. It’s about making laws to serve a political purpose.”

California has a process for reviewing complaints about textbooks. Settlement made by the state after the 2000 lawsuit. As part of that process, the Los Angeles County Department of Education report By 2022, all 514 schools surveyed “were found to have adequate teaching materials,” it said.

Jon Affeldt, an attorney at the nonprofit Public Advocate, who was involved in the lawsuit that sparked the law, questioned claims that Newsom’s move in Temecula went too far. He said the governor was compelled to intervene now because conservatives were “creating conflict” over curriculum choices.

“I think it’s within the governor’s mandate to act to correct the deficiencies if the state becomes aware of them,” Affeldt said. “As a constitutional matter, I think the law will help the state to become more and more prescriptive.

Newsom is an advocate for people like Jenny Scharf, a teacher who was removed from Tuesday’s school board meeting and is calling for the recall of conservative lawmakers.

“They are willing to destroy this community for their own political ends, so we need people to intervene,” she said.

Newsom’s threats have so far not deterred the committee, which also voted three to two on Tuesday to reject textbooks approved by dozens of teachers and parents in a pilot program.

Staff photographer Gina Ferrazzi contributed to this report for Temecula.