California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have directed the State Board of Education to approve new teaching for health classes in elementary and middle schools.
The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner, a Democrat who represents Encinitas, California, sought to compel the State Board of Education to finalize health education resources by mid-2028. These materials were to follow the guidelines set in a 2019 statewide plan for health instruction.
In explaining his choice, Newsom said the bill should be considered only after finishing an ongoing evaluation of health teaching programs across California. This study aims to assess current practices and identify potential improvements before mandating new tools.
According to opponents of the measure, implementing the bill could lead to introducing lessons as early as third grade that teach children that reproductive organs do not always align with an individual’s sense of gender.
“Teaching controversial gender theories to students as young as eight or nine years old is not a practice that most Californians support, nor want to see happening in our schools,” state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a Republican from Santee, wrote in a Sept. 26 letter to the governor, urging him to veto the bill.
Jones, in his letter, wrote that the 2019 health framework “introduces the theory that reproductive anatomy does not necessarily determine a person’s gender.”
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