Protect free speech in public schools
Update: Despite strong opposition, Gov. Newsom signed AB 715 into law on October 7, 2025.
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California schools should be places where students learn to think critically, engage with diverse perspectives, and build understanding across differences. But AB 715 would do the opposite — censoring teachers, undermining academic freedom, chilling critical, constitutionally protected classroom discussion, and threatening freedom of speech in our public schools.
We all agree that antisemitism and all forms of discrimination must be addressed in schools. But AB 715 goes far beyond protecting students from harassment or violence. Instead, it polices what can be said in classrooms, subjects legitimate academic frameworks to overly broad censorship, and risks undermining conversations about history, identity, and human rights.
If signed, this bill would chill free expression and critical inquiry in California schools, opening the door for political censorship of curriculum and undermining educators’ ability to teach with integrity.
Tell Governor Newsom to veto AB 715.
With your help, we can stop this sweeping classroom censorship bill before it becomes law and ensure schools remain spaces for critical discourse.
Governor Newsom,
I am concerned with AB 715’s broad language that threatens free speech in California’s public schools. While the bill’s intent is to protect students from harassment and violence, it goes too far to police what can be said in our classrooms, subjecting teachers and students to censorship and undermines needed conversations around history, identity and human rights.
AB 715’s provisions will dangerously:
- Censor inclusive and historically relevant curricula.
- Create a chilling effect on educators and students engaged in constitutionally protected expression.
This bill would chill free expression and critical inquiry in our schools, leaving an open door for political censorship of curriculum while undermining our educators. AB 715 defines antisemitism so broadly that it could be interpreted to include criticism of Israel or support for Palestinian rights, speech that is protected under the First Amendment.
Now more than ever, we need to foster freedom of speech in our schools and allow for students to engage with diverse perspectives to build understanding across our differences. I urge you to veto AB 715.