Press Conference Tuesday By StopSB48 Coalition To Announce New Ballot Initiative

Sacramento, CA – The coalition behind the recent StopSB48 referendum effort will be holding a press conference on Tuesday, December 6, at 3:00 p.m. outside the California Department of Justice in Sacramento to announce the filing of a new ballot initiative. The proposed Children Learning Accurate Social Science (CLASS) Act will be submitted on Tuesday to the California Attorney General’s Office for official title and summary. That process is expected to stretch into January, after which signature-gathering can begin.

Pacific Justice Institute—Center for Public Policy, which drafted the initiative and initial filings, was part of the StopSB48.com coalition and has been working with other leading pro-family groups in California to develop the CLASS Act. Brad Dacus, president of PJI commented, “In less than three months, and with less than ten percent of the funding of a typical campaign, we collected two-thirds of the signatures needed to get the Stop SB 48 Referendum on the ballot. With the CLASS Act, we will have significantly more time to gather signatures, greater awareness by citizens, and better funding that we are convinced will get this issue before the voters in 2012.”

SB 48, which was enacted this year and will go into effect on January 1, 2012, requires all California public schools to teach history and social science in a way that positively portrays gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons. Critics are concerned that requiring history to be taught with a favorable slant toward select groups compromises accuracy and will create costs that strained school district budgets cannot afford.