San Francisco school board officials are expected to approve a proposal to compel high-school teachers to select up to seven books by "authors of color" for every three traditional classics by white authors.

School board member Steve Phillips, co-author of the multicultural initiative, called the change "long overdue," adding that it would make school work more "relevant" to public school students, only 11.8 percent of whom are white. "We recognize that public education has been failing African-American and Latino students," Phillips said. "Part of the reason is that the curriculum is not engaging them. Students get more interested in reading and language when they see themselves in the curriculum."

Other board members said the proposal would correct certain biases found in traditional high school reading lists. Board member Dan Kelly told the San Francisco Examiner that Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn was biased against African Americans, and that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, while a great work, characterized people based on their class.

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