State Will Send Banned Textbook to Temecula Valley Students

Temecula Valley Unified students will receive a social studies textbook recently banned by the school board after all. Governor Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that the state would purchase and distribute the rejected material to TVUSD students, in direct defiance of conservative school trustees.

“Cancel culture has gone too far in Temecula: radicalized zealots on the school board rejected a textbook used by hundreds of thousands of students and now children will begin the school year without the tools they need to learn,” Newsom said in a statement.

“If the school board won’t do its job by its next board meeting to ensure kids start the school year with basic materials, the state will deliver the book into the hands of children and their parents — and we’ll send the district the bill and fine them for violating state law,” the governor added.

Conservatives on the TVUSD school board had a number of concerns about the curriculum, including a brief reference to slain county supervisor and LGBTQ pioneer Harvey Milk. School Board President Joseph Komrosky sparked outrage last month when he referred to Milk as a “pedophile.” 

Komrosky says the board has been working to find a replacement for the rejected material. Absent the state’s actions, 11,000 kids could be left without subject material in the fall.