Latest news with #AB715
San Francisco Chronicle
29-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Letters: What the Yosemite reservation system tells us about our dependency on cars and traffic
Regarding 'Here's how it went on the first day of Yosemite's controversial reservation system' (Outdoors, May 24): The Yosemite reservation system should be a nonstory but, unfortunately, it has become one. I am an annual-ish visitor to Yosemite National Park and have visited multiple times during the COVID-era reservation system. I've been before and after that iteration of the reservation system. It was significantly easier to enjoy the park without having to deal with delays and traffic. Going back to the reservation system seems like a no-brainer. I hoped that the reservation system and the ease of transport in Yosemite Valley could have translated into some moving opinions about our over-reliance on automobiles in San Francisco and elsewhere. With BART, Muni and other public transportation agencies facing financial uncertainty, a system that is already over-reliant on private automobiles will face the traffic and lack of parking that Yosemite had without reservations. We must rethink the place cars have in our society. Brian Hoang, San Francisco Photos too graphic But the pictures of a tattooed shirtless male kneeling over a depressed woman on the street and a tent with a woman surrounded by three San Francisco police officers are troubling. Other photos are of two guys smoking fentanyl and a couple out of a Dickens novel on the street. This hardly invites sympathetic appreciation. The story talks about a woman defecating at a bus stop and rendering it unusable. Another woman is quoted as saying she wished she had never started fentanyl and details how she spends most of her days trying to score the drug with her husband. How is the average reader to see these individuals as worthy of care and treatment? Treatment is available, and I commend Mayor Daniel Lurie for his focus on the problem. These are real and needy people. Mel Blaustein, San Francisco Bill discriminates Regarding 'California anti-discrimination bill faces blowback' (Politics, May 21): The story underrepresents the opposition to AB715 and fails to recognize the fallacies in the arguments about antisemitism in our schools. At the Assembly's Education Committee's hearing, over 140 people opposed the bill to 70 in support. Many organizations not listed also filed letters in opposition. AB715 was rushed, requiring a waiver of legislative rules — an abrogation of the democratic process. The voices of BIPOC communities were never included in the process, and that constitutes racism. The bill would allow for anonymous complaints against teachers accused of antisemitism. It is important to allow time for teachers and the California Teachers Union to discuss the bill. Studying Palestine and the politics of Israel has led to the censorship and reprimanding of teachers. This creates an environment of fear and silencing. Criticism of Israel, studying and critiquing the genocide against Palestinians — as it has been named by several human rights organizations — should not be conflated with antisemitism. If AB715 passes, it will set a dangerous precedent for attacking teachers for curriculum that only a small and specific group of parents don't like. Carla Schick, Oakland No free lunch But I have to respond to her comment, 'Everyone in this country deserves to live a life of ease, and so do we.' Sorry, Carolyn, but no one deserves a life of ease. Here in the U.S., you have to earn it. Give the people of East Oakland the opportunity of education, good jobs and affordable housing, and your mission will succeed. Kevin Hangman, Yountville
San Francisco Chronicle
26-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Letters: Antisemitism is real. A new state anti-discrimination bill won't protect against it
Regarding 'California anti-discrimination bill faces blowback' (Politics, May 21): While everyone agrees antisemitism is bad, few agree on what it means. AB715 expands the definition of antisemitism by defining 'nationality' as 'residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity.' So, because Judaism is dominant in Israel, school lessons that reference accusations that it is an apartheid state or that its actions in Gaza are genocidal would be deemed antisemitic. AB715's lead author, Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur, says the bill doesn't define criticism of Israel as antisemitism 'as long as that criticism is consistent with how you would criticize any other government that's doing the same thing.' Nice try, but who decides? When Amnesty International and Oxfam call the Gaza massacres genocide, are they antisemitic? This bill will not protect Jews. It sets up Jews as a special class deserving protection denied to African Americans, Arab Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and other groups not mentioned in AB715. As a California Jew, I urge a no vote on this terrible bill. David Spero, San Francisco Charge for traffic Regarding 'N.Y. is using this controversial idea to fight traffic, fund transit and bring life back downtown. S.F. can, too' (Open Forum, May 22): Ned Resnikoff's op-ed is right on point. I have lived in San Francisco by the Bay Bridge on/off ramps at Harrison, Main and Bryant streets for 30 years. We residents put up with vehicular emissions, honking, shouting and general pandemonium as commuters come into and exit the city. We sometimes do not have access to our garages. Cabs and Ubers cannot get to us. Emergency vehicles cannot get to us. In the meantime, more housing is being built and proposed in this area. This will bring even more vehicles to the neighborhood. I, for one, cannot comprehend how this situation can continue. Katy Liddell, San Francisco Help all moms Republicans have raised the child tax credit to $2,500 in their 'Big Beautiful Bill.' They hope this will persuade more middle-class women to stay home with their kids. At the same time, the bill requires women too poor for tax credits but who receive Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program benefits to leave their kids and go to work. If they don't, they lose the $200 to $300 per month that SNAP provides. This raises two questions. Why do Americans who are better off to begin with get a much higher benefit? Why do Republicans only want to help middle-class moms stay home while they force working-class moms to go out and work no matter what their circumstances? Kristina Marcy, Woodland, Yolo County Secession would be bad Regarding 'Secession makes sense' (Letters to the Editor, May 22): The letter endorsed the idea of California's secession as a viable and 'sane' response to the current state of the country. What this ignores is that, unlike the European Union, the Constitution contains no legal means for a member state to leave. Consequently, California's secession would immediately trigger a justifiable response by the Federal government, including declaring war on the state, just as it did to the Confederacy secession in 1860. California could not win such a war. But even worse than a defeat, it would provide the President Donald Trump with an opportunity to don the mantle of Abraham Lincoln as a defender of the Union. Trump has currently juxtaposed his image with that of Lincoln on the Capital Mall. It would be a disastrous mistake to provide him with a concrete reason for this offensive comparison. John Rose, Ashland, Ore. Thanks to service members This Memorial Day, we remember those who gave their lives defending our country and the freedoms that make America the greatest nation on Earth. It is up to each of us as Americans to carry on their memory and uphold the values they sacrificed dearly to protect. May God bless the men and women in our armed forces, the families of those who have lost their loved ones in the service of our nation and the incredible United States of America for which they fought. Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, Fla.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
California anti-discrimination bill faces blowback
It would seem hard to find any controversial issues in legislation now moving through the state Assembly that would prohibit California public schools from allowing the use of any textbooks, other writings or classroom instruction that promote discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality or any other category protected by law. Sponsored by the Legislature's Jewish Caucus, with support from caucuses of racial and ethnic minorities, the bill, AB715, won unanimous approval from the Assembly Education Committee last week, and received only favorable testimony at Wednesday's hearing of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. But one provision of the measure has alarmed pro-Palestinian groups, other critics of Israel's government such as Jewish Voice for Peace, and free-speech advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union. It would define a person's 'nationality,' one of the categories protected from discrimination, to include their 'residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity.' That appears to mean, according to the bill's opponents, that a teacher or course material that criticized Israel's government, or questioned its ongoing attack on Gaza, would be prohibited because it could be considered an attack on Israel's primary religious group. And AB715 would also establish a state Antisemitism Coordinator's office to oversee compliance with the law. This is 'a thinly veiled attempt to expand the definition of antisemitism to include any discussion that is critical of the state of Israel,' Mohamed Shekh of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center told the Chronicle. 'If we are not allowed to talk about the conflict … we will be failing our students and actually increasing antisemitism,' Gabriel Kahn, an eighth-grade teacher in Oakland, said in an interview after testifying against the bill on behalf of opposing groups. But that interpretation of the bill's language is incorrect, according to its lead author, Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Los Angeles. Coauthors include Assembly Member Dawn Addis, D-Monterey, and state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. Criticizing Israel's government or its policies 'does not constitute antisemitism,' Zbur told the Chronicle, 'as long as that criticism is consistent with how you would criticize any other government that's doing the same thing.' Or as Wiener put it, 'I have no issue with criticism of Israel or any other country. I – and many others – have a big issue when that criticism crosses the line into demonizing Israel, which sadly has happened all too often in recent years in California classrooms.' Which raises the question of whether the bill is needed, as its supporters contend, to combat a rise in antisemitism in California schools. Jewish students 'are getting bullied and harassed in schools,' said David Bocarsley, executive director of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee, which represents 39 organizations. The Anti-Defamation League, which combats antisemitism and supports Israel, reported that antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault in California, on school grounds and elsewhere, increased nearly 40% between 2021 and 2022. In one incident documented by state education officials, last October a teacher at the Tamalpais Union High School District in Marin County told students the schools had a day off for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, but not for Indigenous People's Day, 'because we have too many Jews in the district.' The state Department of Education also found bias in two 12th-grade ethnic studies classes at San Jose's Branham High School in 2023: One teacher told the class that Israel was a settler-colonial state, and another did not comment on or dispute a student's reference to 'the genocide of Palestinians.' And this February, the Santa Ana Unified School District, in a settlement with the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups, canceled ethnic studies classes that the groups said were biased and agreed that the content of future courses would be discussed in advance at public meetings. But state education officials have not reported on whether there has been an overall increase in antisemitic incidents. Shekh, of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, said the Anti-Defamation League's assertions of huge increases were based mostly on 'instances where criticism of Israel or anti-Zionist speech was classified as antisemitism.' And last November a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by Concerned Jewish Parents and Teachers of Los Angeles that contended the ethnic studies curriculum in some Los Angeles schools, and about two dozen school districts in California, promoted antisemitism. Ethnic studies, which focuses on the history and experiences of racial and ethnic minorities, is already taught in many California schools and will be a required course in high schools this fall under a first-in-the-nation state law. The state's model curriculum for the program does not refer to Israel and Palestine, but the course challenged in the lawsuit, labeled the 'Liberated Ethnic Studies Curriculum,' includes discussions of Palestinians and the lands they held before Israel's establishment in 1948. The lawsuit contended the classes were intended to erase 'the idea of Zionism, and the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel, from the public square.' But U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin said the apparent goal of the suit was to classify as antisemitic 'instruction that may be critical of Zionism or Israel,' and that the parents and teachers had not shown that they or the students would be harmed by 'learning about Israel and Palestine.' He also said a ban on the curriculum would violate freedom of speech. The plaintiffs have appealed his ruling. Earlier legislation, which failed to advance, was aimed at tightening rules against discrimination in ethnic studies classes. AB715 is broader and would apply to courses in all subjects. The next committee vote is scheduled Friday.
Epoch Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
California Bill Would Broaden Discrimination Protections in Schools
A committee in the California Legislature will consider a bill on May 21 that seeks to strengthen and broaden existing discrimination protections in K–12 schools to target anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Under The bill, introduced by Democratic Assembly members Rick Chavez Zbur of Los Angeles and Dawn Addis of San Luis Obispo, would also establish a state anti-Semitism coordinator who would ensure schools and staff, including contractors, are in compliance with existing anti-discrimination laws. To address specific forms of discrimination, the bill expands the definition of 'nationality' to include a person's actual or perceived shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics, or residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity. It also explicitly defines religious discrimination to include anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, aiming to provide clearer protections against these forms of bias. It also prohibits schools from adopting, approving, or allowing any content in their teaching materials if its use would subject a student to unlawful discrimination. The bill unanimously passed the Assembly Education Committee on May 14 and will next be heard by the Appropriations Committee. Related Stories 5/19/2025 5/17/2025 Zbur, a member of the California Jewish Legislative Caucus, says the bill lays the framework to address a rise in anti-Semitism in schools. 'Jewish and all students deserve to be safe, affirmed and respected in our schools and communities,' Zbur said in a AB 715 is co-authored by the chairs of the other Ethnic caucuses, including the Black, Latino, Asian, and Pacific Islander caucuses. Zbur and Addis withdrew a similar piece of legislation last week that failed to gain ground in the Legislature. Assembly Bill 1468 had called for creating academic standards that would have laid out what could and couldn't be taught in mandatory ethnic studies courses. Opponents of AB 1468 and AB 715, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the bill amounted to censorship and threatened academic freedom. 'AB 1468 was a blatant attempt to undermine Ethnic Studies and silence Palestinian narratives,' the CEO of CAIR's California Chapter, Hussam Ayloush, said in a The decision to replace AB 1468 was the result of collaboration with the other ethnic caucuses and aims to take a broader focus on discrimination that would apply to all schoolwork, not just ethnic studies, said lawmakers. In Since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Hamas terrorist group launched a land, sea, and air attack on Israel, tensions have increased among the Israelis and Palestinians amid the subsequent war in Gaza, especially on U.S. The U.S. Department of Education has in recent months On March 7, the department, along with the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and the General Services Administration,
