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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 16, 2024 09:13 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Doug Mastriano |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Holocaust Education in Schools |
| In the near future, I will introduce legislation to ensure that all schools in Pennsylvania offer age-appropriate education on the Holocaust. We are almost 80 years from the end of the Holocaust. Most of those who were alive to witness those horrors have now sadly passed on. Now more than ever, it’s important for future generations to learn about the genocide which resulted in the deaths of over six million Jews. Act 70 was passed by the General Assembly and enacted beginning with the 2015-2016 school year. The law recommended holocaust, genocide, and human rights education but it did not require it. Following enactment of Act 70, the PA Department of Education made educational guidelines, free resource materials, and free training available for all schools. A 2017 study by the State Board of Education showed that 90% of public and private schools in Pennsylvania are providing education on the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights violations. My bill will simply codify what 90% of schools are already doing and improve to 100% compliance across the state. My legislation will also enhance curriculum transparency standards for the holocaust education that is being offered in each school. Please join me as a co-sponsor. |