GENOCIDE EDUCATION                                                                        S.B. 1075 (S-3):

                                                                                                    SUMMARY OF BILL

                                                                                      REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE

Senate Bill 1075 (Substitute S-3 as reported)

Sponsor:  Senator Randy Richardville

Committee:  Education

CONTENT

The bill would amend the Revised School Code to do the following:

-- Require the board of a school district or public school academy (PSA) to ensure that the social studies curriculum for grades 8 to 12 included age- and grade-appropriate instruction about genocide.

-- Recommend a combined total of six hours of genocide instruction during grades 8 to 12.

-- Require the State Board of Education's recommended model core academic curriculum content standards for grades 8 to 12 to include learning objectives concerning genocide.

-- Require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to ensure that the Michigan Merit Examination and the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP) assessment, as appropriate, included questions related to the State Board's learning objectives concerning genocide, beginning in the 2015-2016 school year.

The bill also would create the Governor's Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education as a temporary commission with a duration of not more than two years. With regard to the Council, the bill would do the following:

-- Require the Governor to appoint Council members within 60 days after the bill took effect, if he or she determined that sufficient private funding was available for the Council's operation.

-- Prohibit the use of State funds for the Council's operations.

-- Prescribe the Council's duties, including identifying strategies and content for providing and enhancing genocide education, and advising the Superintendent of Public Instruction, school districts, PSAs, and nonpublic schools on the strategies and content.

-- Require the Council to submit to the Legislature an annual report on its progress and status.

-- Provide that the Council would be an advisory body only, and that the State would have no right or obligation to implement its findings and recommendations unless legislation was enacted specifically to authorize implementation.

MCL 380.1278 et al.                                                      Legislative Analyst:  Julie Cassidy

FISCAL IMPACT

The Michigan Department of Education could experience some additional costs to ensure that content expectations for all of grades 8 through 12 included learning objectives on genocide and to ensure that State assessments included questions on genocide. It appears that current high school content expectations include learning objectives on genocide, but the extent to which State assessments currently test on the subject of historical genocide is unknown.

There would be no State fiscal impact related to the Governor's Council on Genocide and Holocaust Education because the bill would prohibit the use of State funds to support the Council.

For the school districts around the State, the bill could have some fiscal impact if the districts were not already providing age- and grade-appropriate instruction on historical genocide in each of grades 8 to 12. However, the extent to which each district currently provides such instruction in each of those grade levels is unknown. It is likely that most districts provide at least some instruction in at least some of the grades.

Date Completed:  12-4-14                                             Fiscal Analyst:  Kathryn Summers

This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.