School districts that want to ban textbooks depicting LGBTQ+ people and other historically marginalized groups could face stiff fines under a new California law signed by the governor. Gavin Newsom on Monday.

The legislation is the result of the Democratic governor’s battle against a conservative school board in the Riverside County city of Temecula. The board opposed materials this summer because of their portrait of gay rights icon and slain San Francisco politician Harvey Milk.

School districts statewide will face increased scrutiny of curriculum decisions regarding social science materials, which must include “inclusive and diverse perspectives,” including the role and contributions of Latino Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans and other ethnic and cultural groups.

The bill is an attempt to “reaffirm” and more strictly enforce state laws that already mandate ethnic studies and LGBTQ+ history classes. It comes as school boards in California’s Republican-leaning districts have adopted policies that reflect the Republican Party’s national culture wars over “parental rights” over issues of gender identity and racial history.

Nieuwsom signed the bill on video along with the author, Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Perris), spoke Monday about what he called a national “cultural cleansing” led by Republican leaders who have tried to limit what textbooks are allowed in schools.

“We have school districts large and small that ban books, ban free speech and criminalize librarians and teachers,” Newsom said Monday. “We want to do more than just rhetorically oppose that, and that is what this legislation provides.”

Earlier on Monday, Newsom announced he would publicly debate Florida’s governor. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president and is credited with sparking a nationwide ban on textbooks.

Under the new California law, school districts that don’t comply will face tax penalties, with the state deducting the purchase price of enough textbooks from the district’s local control funding formula allocation. In the Temecula case, that was estimated at $1.5 million, but the board changed course after Newsom’s threat to intervene.

The bill expands the duties of local superintendents, who will now be tasked with overseeing and correcting all school decisions made by elected school board members that are prohibited.

“AB 1078 is doing heavy lifting,” Kindra Britt, a spokesperson for the California County Superintendents, said Monday. “The state is trying to balance students’ rights without adding oxygen to highly politicized local conflicts. That is not easy.”

The bill was supported by advocacy groups, including the ACLU, who said it was necessary for Newsom to intervene in school policies that discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and students of color.

But the bill drew opposition from parents who said it would allow age-inappropriate materials in schools, and from a list of local officials in schools and not just officials representing conservative districts.

The California School Boards Assn. called the bill “heavy-handed” and warned that it could complicate local education decisions by involving state and county officials, when laws have already been introduced to ensure inclusive textbooks.

CSBA spokesman Troy Flint said Monday that many school officials “understand the motivation” of the legislation and support inclusive education, but believe local control is best.

There are concerns that the bill sets a precedent to allow the state to override local school decisions that fall outside the scope of the current textbook issue.

“There are a lot of concerns about implementation,” Flint said Monday. “I think to some extent this bill has been pushed forward without thinking about what might happen in a different scenario. Truly, the best laws should be meaningful and fair, regardless of the political landscape and who is in power. specific moment.”