History Class Upgrade: New Bill Mandates Inclusion of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander History in K-12

The Teaching Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander History Act is pretty straightforward: it mandates a major curriculum update across the country. This bill requires that American history and civics education programs, including those funded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, explicitly incorporate the history, contributions, and struggles of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities. This isn't just a suggestion; it changes the rules for what federal education programs must cover (SEC. 3).

If you have kids in school or are paying taxes to fund education, this means the history textbooks are about to get a lot more comprehensive. The bill’s findings section (SEC. 2) lays out the case, noting that current K-12 history is often too Eurocentric, overlooks the diversity within AANHPI groups, and fails to cover crucial, often painful, parts of U.S. history—like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII, or the displacement of refugees from Southeast Asia following U.S. military actions.

The Real Story Gets Written In

For the busy parent or teacher, this legislation matters because it forces the history curriculum to address historical facts that have long been sidelined. For example, the bill specifically calls out the 12,000 Chinese laborers who died building the Transcontinental Railroad and the history of racist immigration laws, like the Page Act of 1875, that restricted Asian immigration. This means when your high schooler studies U.S. immigration, they won't just learn about Ellis Island; they'll also learn about Angel Island and the systemic exclusion that shaped the West Coast.

The bill also requires that the history taught includes the unique contributions and histories of Pacific Island Territories and all Pacific Islands (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia). For someone from Guam or Hawaii, this is a huge step toward seeing their community’s role—including the high concentration of Pacific Islanders serving in the U.S. military—recognized in the national narrative.

Training the Teachers and Testing the Students

It’s one thing to mandate a change, and another to actually implement it. The bill addresses this by updating the Presidential and Congressional Academies for history and civics education (SEC. 3). These are the programs that train teachers and develop educational materials. They are now required to incorporate AANHPI history into their training.

Crucially, these academies must now partner with the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific American Center. This collaboration is designed to ensure that teachers have access to high-quality, accurate resources, rather than just having to scramble to find materials on their own. Think of the Smithsonian partnership as the quality control stamp on the new curriculum. Furthermore, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—the test often called "The Nation's Report Card"—will also have to incorporate AANHPI history into its assessment framework. If it's on the test, schools have to teach it.

Cutting Through the Myth

One of the bill’s stated goals is to counter the "model minority myth," which the findings section notes wrongly paints AANHPI people as perpetual foreigners and creates division among minority groups. By providing a factual, comprehensive history of exclusion, labor exploitation, and military service, the curriculum aims to provide context for ongoing struggles against discrimination and structural racism. For the average person, this means a better-informed public discourse and a more accurate understanding of who built this country and how they were treated along the way. It’s about ensuring that the American story includes all the chapters, not just the easy ones.