LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles school district will now require students to pass ethnic studies classes in order to graduate high school.

The idea was introduced by three Los Angeles Unified School District board members and backed by students as a means of fostering a better cultural understanding in the district’s schools, the LA Times reports.

Only one board member questioned the multi-million dollar financial impact as the district works to address a projected $326 million budget deficit for the 2015-16 school year.

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The move mandates that LA schools offer at least a semester of ethnic studies to students by the 2017-18 school year, with the graduation requirement taking effect the following year.

Jose Lara, a social studies teacher at Santee Education Complex, led the effort for ethnic studies in L.A. schools after he successfully implemented the same requirement in the El Rancho Unified School District, where he is a board member, according to the news site.

“In East L.A., it might be a Chicano history. In Koreatown, it might be Asian American courses,” he said. “This is a reform that came from the bottom up. It’s students demanding more from their education.”

Students like Michelle Thomas, a 16-year-old junior at Maya Angelou Community High School, wrote letters, led petition drives and met with educators and elected officials to push for the graduation requirement, the Times reports.

“Some of us in my neighborhood, we’re torn apart from each other, we fight against each other,” Thomas said. “But we shouldn’t fight, we should be together. We’ve been fighting the same struggle.”

Thomas claims the graduation requirement is a victory for students.

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“I’ve never experienced a victory before,” she told the Times. “It shows that when students organize, we can actually get things done.”

Currently, 27 ethnic studies courses are offered at 19 schools but the credits for most of those classes don’t count toward enrollment requirements at the University of California.

UC San Diego requires ethnic, cultural, religious or gender diversity courses for undergraduates, and UCLA is considering a similar proposal.

“And, earlier this year, Cal State L.A. faculty voted to require two diversity-related courses, including at least one that focuses on race and ethnicity.

LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer told the Times a task force comprised of administrators, students, teachers and others will develop the specifics on the district’s new graduation requirement, while the superintendent is expected to set the budget and staffing. Many students and advocates who rallied outside LAUSD’s board meeting Tuesday, where board members voted 6-1 to adopt the ethnic studies requirement, applauded the decision, 89.3 KPCC reports.

Orthopedic Hospital Medical Magnet High School senior Angie Escalante said the district’s history curriculum is too white.

“It says that we don’t exist and when we do, it’s for something bad,” she told KPCC.

Community Rights Campaign spokesman Manuel Criollo said the groups thinks new requirement “builds a young person’s sense of self and empathy in others.” The Community Rights Campaign supplied Little Caesar’s pizza for students.

LAUSD officials contend the new requirement will cost the district about $3.9 million, but the board has not yet approved a formal budget. Only one board member, Tamar Galatzan, questioned the extra spending at a time when LAUSD faces a massive $326 million deficit for next year. She also believes the move could overburden students, KPCC reports.

“I believe we should work these issues out first,” she said.