Thread: Cedillo says "an embarrassment to all Americans."

Bill would require teaching about forced deportations

By STEVE LAWRENCE
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO -- State Sen. Gil Cedillo is trying to shine some light on a shocking but little known episode in American history. He faces an uphill battle.

The Los Angeles Democrat is the author of a bill that would require public junior high and high schools to teach students about the deportation of about 2 million Latinos, including 400,000 Californians, to Mexico during the Great Depression.

Elementary schools would have the option of including information about the deportations in social science instruction.

The deportation program was started in 1929 by the Hoover administration, supposedly as a way to get rid of illegal immigrants and open up jobs during the Depression. Most of those rounded up and sent to Mexico were American citizens or legal immigrants, critics say.

Cedillo calls it "an embarrassment to all Americans."

"Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it," he said. "That would be another tragedy upon a tragedy. . . . The way to avoid that is through education."

Cedillo's bill is scheduled to be considered today by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

That committee shelved an earlier version of the legislation last year as part of an effort to hold down spending. A committee analysis said the bill could lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in state costs to reimburse school districts for a new mandate.

Cedillo said he might be able to "tweak the language regarding what's mandatory, what's optional or available" to get the bill out of committee.

Even if the bill clears the Legislature, it faces a possible veto by Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger, who turned down similar legislation in 2006 that was introduced by then-Sen. Joe Dunn, a Democrat from Garden Grove.

The Republican governor says he has consistently rejected bills that require mention of specific events or groups of people in social science instruction.

"I continue to believe that the state should refrain from being overly prescriptive in school curriculum beyond establishing rigorous academic standards and frameworks," he said in vetoing the Dunn legislation.

Schwarzenegger also vetoed a Dunn bill in 2005 that would have set up a fund to pay reparations to victims of the deportations.

But the governor signed another Dunn measure that same year that officially apologized for the deportations.

The requirement for junior and senior high schools would kick in when the state Board of Education adopts new social science textbooks and curriculum frameworks. Cedillo said the board is going through that process now, which makes the bill timely.

Here are some of the other bills on lawmakers' agendas this week: CITIZEN WHISTLEBLOWERS -- Cities and counties would have to maintain "hotline" telephone numbers that people could call to report possible violations of laws or regulations by local government employees. The measure, by Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Alameda, is scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the Assembly Local Government Committee.

DRIVING WITH PETS -- Assemblyman Bill Maze, R-Visalia, doesn't have anything against pets, but he doesn't think they belong in their owners' arms or laps when they're driving cars. Maze has a bill on the Assembly Appropriations Committee's agenda Wednesday that would make it an infraction for someone to drive with an animal in their arms or lap. A recent American Automobile Association study ranked pets and loose objects as a bigger distraction for drivers than cell phone use, eating and drinking.

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS -- A bill by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, would make people eligible for unemployment benefits if they lost their jobs because they took paid leaves of absence to care for an ill family member of a new child. It also is on the Senate Appropriation Committee's agenda on Monday.

PROPERTY TAXES -- Counties could allow senior citizens to reduce or eliminate their property tax bills by volunteering to work for the county doing gardening, data entry, customer service and other jobs. The measure, by Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, is on the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee's agenda on Monday.

QUIET VEHICLES -- Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, is concerned that quiet-running hybrid and electric vehicles could pose a threat to visually impaired pedestrians. He's introduced a bill that would a create a commission made up of representatives of auto companies, law enforcement and the visually impaired to recommend ways that vehicle engines could be designed to emit enough sound to ensure that people who can't see will hear them. It's also on the Senate Appropriations Committee agenda on Monday.

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/2 ... /1033/NEWS

"Is this the same One Bill Gil"

If so.. that would make him 2 Bill Gill