In this episode of Who Belongs? we speak with Lara Kiswani, Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center based in San Francisco, and Theresa Montaño, professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge, to discuss the efforts to develop an ethnic studies curriculum in California. On September 30, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 331 which would have made ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement across the state. For more than a year, Professor Montaño has been a part of an advisory committee tasked with drafting a model curriculum based on the anti-racist principles of ethnic studies. The curriculum provides sample lesson topics on things like housing segregation, Central American immigration, Filipino labor organizing, and indigenous struggles over land, just to name a few. Lara Kiswani’s organization, AROC, is part of the coalition promoting the inclusion of lessons related to the experiences of Arab Americans. The guests help us understand why ethnic studies is needed, why the bill was vetoed, and what comes next. For a transcript of this episode visit https://belonging.berkeley.edu/whobelongs/why-newsom-vetoed-ethnic-studies