Salinas students help Alejo's ethnic studies bill move forward

A law that would require California public high schools to offer an ethnic studies course was approved in the Assembly Committee on Education this week. And several students from the Salinas Valley Dream Academy were there to testify in support of the bill.

The bill would require the development an A-G educational curriculum for Ethnic Studies, and then require that Ethnic Studies courses be available as an elective for students at all California high schools.

Alejo, who proposed a similar bill in 2014, is being joined by several assemblymembers from different ethnic backgrounds and a Republican to co-sponsor the bill, which makes it for a stronger effort that's likely to gain more support this time around.

Students from Alisal High School in Salinas and the Salinas Valley Dream Academy testified in Sacramento in support of the bill. Ruben Pizarro, director of the academy, sure likes to take those students everywhere!

The bill will next be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where it will be analyzed on a fiscal basis.