Assembly Bill 2653: Adding Civics to State Curriculum

Author:
Assemblyman Cook

Summary:
Assembly Bill 2653 would have addded a new provision to New York Education Law section 801 for the development of courses of instruction in federal, state, and local government in the public school. While this bill did not lay out specifics, the intent of the legislature was “to promote a spirit of citizenship in the children of the state and moral and intellectual qualities which are essential in preparing to meet the obligations of citizenship in peace or in war.” These courses to promote good citizenship would have been developed by the Board of Regents and all public school students over 8-years-old would have been required to participate.

Under this bill the courses in federal, state, and local government that are developed by the Board of Regents would not have been required to be taught in private schools or homeschools. However, private schools were required by Assembly Bill 2653 to create and teach similar instruction in federal, state, and local government.

While it is HSLDA’s opinion that homeschool parents would not be required to add this civic instruction to their home instruction programs, at the most they would need to provide their own developed courses of instruction in federal, state, and local government.

This bill has been introduced several years in a row and has not passed. That trend was continued this year.

Status:

01/28/2005		(House) Introduced and Referred to Committee on Assembly Education
04/26/2006		(House) Committee Meeting set for Assembly Education.
04/26/2006		(House) Held at Sponsor’s Request.
06/23/2006		(House) Legislature is Closed

HSLDA's Position:
Neutral.

Action Requested:
None at this time.

Other Resources

Bill Text