PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Asian American and Pacific Islander history will soon be required reading in New Jersey schools.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation on Tuesday to ensure that lessons on the contributions, history and heritage of AAPI communities will be part of the state’s K-12 social studies learning standards.
“We’re so happy about it,” said Kani Ilangovan, founder of Make Us Visible NJ, an organization that pushed for the change.
“I think it would increase our sense of belonging and also for others to see we belong, that we’ve helped build this country to what it is today.”
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These and other lessons are what is in store for New Jersey school students.
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“I didn’t start learning about Asian American history until like last year, my junior year,” said High school senior Christina Huang, who wrote letters to lawmakers about the importance of the bill. “And most of it was erased from history, and it made me feel very disconnected from the things I was learning in the classroom.”
Huang says she wants to follow in the footsteps of Patsy Mink, a third-generation Japanese American congresswoman from Hawaii, who co-authored Title IX, the civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools.