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History
- Referred to education
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Relates to instruction on the Garifuna people
In Assembly Committee · Education · Sponsor Luis R. Sepúlveda
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to instruction on the Garifuna people
Purpose or general idea of bill
This purpose of this bill is to increase awareness and cultural competency throughout the New York State community by making that Garifuna people a mandatory part of our education curriculum.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1. Calls upon the regents of the university of the State of New York to include the "the history of the Garifuna People" to a previously established list of pedagogically important historical topics. This section also ensures that there rules regarding attendance during the instruction of this added materials, enforced by the commissioner.
Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Justification
The Garifuna are an ethnic group of mixed ancestry - descendants of Carib, Arawak and African people living along the Caribbean Coast in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A seafaring people, they arrived in the United States as merchant marines during World War II. Today, New York City is home to the largest Garifuna population outside of Central America with an estimated 200,000 living in the South Bronx, Brownsville and East New York in Brooklyn, and Harlem.
This part of our population represents the growing Afro-Latino representation within New York State. With the growing representation it is important to make sure that the New York State community is attuned to interacting and understanding the histories of our neighbors. Garifuna history is not just Central American history but also New York history. Adding the history of the Garifuna people to our educational curriculum contributes to the bridging of cultural and historical blind spots in our understanding of how New York became what it is today.
The inclusion of the history of Garifuna people is not unprecedented since New York State educates our students on other immigrant histories such as: the Holocaust, mass starvation of Ireland from 1845 to 1850 and various other human rights issues related to genocide. The inclusion of Garifuna history will educate a better New York workforce that would have an understanding of not solely domestic and European history, but also Latin American and Afro-diasporic.
Prior legislative history
New Bill.
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the fast of next July.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.