California Bill Would Block School Districts From Removing Woke Lessons, Could Enrich Newsom’s Wife

A recent proposed California bill seeks to transfer the authority to design curriculum from local school boards to the state, potentially resulting in profits for California Governor Gavin Newsom’s wife.

Assemblyman Corey Jackson introduced the bill in February 2023, titled “Instructional materials: removing instructional materials and curriculum: diversity,” to prevent conservative school boards from removing educational content deemed objectionable to them.

Current law enables a school district to eliminate books and publications with religious or partisan content. However, the bill would give the state board the exclusive power to restrict or disapprove the elimination of publications by the governing board of a school district.

Every educational material should have proportionate and accurate presentation of California’s diversity in categories of race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, and sexuality, according to the bill.

The Daily Wire also reported that OpenTheBooks.org observed that Newsom and his wife could make a profit from the proposed bill’s “representation” provisions and restrictions on removing content.

Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, runs a nonprofit called the Representation Project, which makes social justice films that schools license and use with accompanying lesson plans in the state. The Representation Project has earned about $1.5 million, according to tax documents since 2012.

The nonprofit transferred $1.6 million of that revenue derived from screening fees to Siebel Newsom’s business, Girls Club Entertainment, the Daily Wire added.

OpenTheBooks.org also found sexually explicit material, political boosterism, and controversial content in some of Newsom’s films, which may be difficult to dispute locally or challenge the wider state board under the proposed bill. One parent filed a complaint against the Creekside Middle School when their child watched a Representation Project film, while images and other materials were considered crude and disgusting.