Opinion
Education Letter to the Editor

Does Calif. Require Schools to Teach About Marriage?

November 11, 2008 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

To the Editor:

As reported in “Union Donations in California Same-Sex-Marriage Debate Criticized” (Oct. 29, 2008), the California Teachers Union donated $1 million in October to oppose Proposition 8, a measure on the Nov. 4 ballot to amend the state constitution to say that only traditional marriage between a man and a woman is valid. The article mentions that state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell spoke out in response to TV advertisements for the initiative, which claimed that if same-sex marriage were to be allowed to continue in the state, it would mean schoolchildren, even as young as kindergartners, would be forced to deal with the issue in classrooms. Mr. O’Connell said that California’s public schools “are not required to teach about marriage.”

I think the record needs to be set straight. According to the California Education Code, Section 51933, the state requires instruction about marriage if a district provides sexual health education. The California Department of Education cites on its Web site a survey finding that 96 percent of the state’s districts do teach sex ed. This makes Mr. O’Connell’s comment, and ballot opponents’ claims that legalizing same-sex marriage will not bring instruction on it into schools, riddled with misinformation and seemingly forged to discredit proponents.

Bruce Budnick

San Francisco, Calif.

A version of this article appeared in the November 12, 2008 edition of Education Week as Does Calif. Require Schools To Teach About Marriage?

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: March 13, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read