Waiza Irshad couldn’t point to any one moment when she felt the pang of being misunderstood as a Muslim student of Pakistani heritage in New York. Instead, it is the result of sporadic but recurrent incidents of microaggressions—such as the many times her classmates asked her if Pakistan is part of Asia—over long periods of time. 

This experience prompted Irshad to step up and speak as a youth leader of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) at a press conference organized by the REACH Coalition this Wednesday.  

Irshad joined over thirty other education and AAPI advocates to demand New York State Governor Kathy Hochul sign the AANHPI Education Equity Act into law. 

“Right now, when AAPI youth share that we rarely see our communities reflected in class. It’s easy for it to be brushed off as just one person’s experience. But with this survey, we’ll have statewide data that can’t be wrong.” Irshad said. “This bill is the first step toward meaningful change.”

Led by Assembly Member Grace Lee and Senator John Liu, the AANHPI Education Equity Act aims to study how public schools across New York are teaching Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Island (AANHPI) history.  It creates an advisory body to recommend the best ways to incorporate the new curriculum into existing learning standards.

The bill was introduced early this year and passed both the State Assembly and Senate in June, with the Governor having until December 30 to sign. This bill calls for a survey of the current way AANHPI history is taught in New York.   It is part of a growing movement where states such as Illinois, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Florida pass legislation requiring schools to add AAPI history to the curriculum. 

“This bill is not just a policy step, but a statement that our stories matter and that our community deserves to be recognized and seen,” said Assembly Member Grace Lee at the event. 

The urgency for bills like the AANHPI Education Equity Act came from the rise of anti-Asian hate incidents in recent years. Co-founded in 2022 by CACF and Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA)-NY, the REACH Coalition gathers a coalition of students, youth educators and advocates to bring forth an inclusive curriculum in New York City.

 The coalition has been working with Assembly member Lee and Senator Liu since 2022 and 2023 on the AANHPI Curriculum Bill. Although that bill did not pass beyond the Senate committee, according to Felicia Singh, CACF’s Director of Policy and Government Relations, it is the ultimate goal. 

“Education is the key to fighting hate,” Assembly member Lee said. 

But the current survey bill is also important because, more than fighting hate, it will help create more inclusive spaces where students feel they belong. 

Shreya Sunderram is the director of the Localized History Project.  The initiative at the Asian American/Asian Research Institute of the City University of New York surveys the extent to which AANHPI history is taught in the city’s K-12 classrooms and presents community-driven, youth-led curriculum. She said that their research has found that the lack of AANHPI history in the city’s current curriculum, particularly the lack of South Asian and Southeast Asian history, has led to young people in the community feel like “perpetual foreigners.” 

“Asian Americans are part of the American story,” Sunderram said. “And so legislation like this and a survey like this will ensure that the state recognizes the fact that our history is American history, and it needs to be taught in our classrooms.”

If the bill becomes the law, the state education department would then facilitate the survey statewide. Senator Liu said he had high expectations about the collaboration, including with State Senator and Chair of the Committee of Education Shelley Mayer, who also spoke at the event. 

Senator Liu said he was optimistic that Governor Hochul would sign the bill.

“That ultimate goal is legislation that will mandate the teaching of the Asian American experience in New York public schools, and Governor Hochul promised that she would sign that bill,” Liu said. “So it makes every sense that the governor would sign this bill that seeks to have a survey of Asian American teaching in public schools to see how pervasive or how absent the teaching of Asian American history is.”