Arizona Witch Hunt Showdown on Tuesday: Exclusive Interviews with Ethnic Studies Teachers

[Derechos]

An increasingly baffled nation will watch as the long and twisted witch hunt of Tucson’s Ethnic Studies/Mexican American Studies program takes a hasty Orwellian turn on Tuesday.

Despite the fact that a costly state-commissioned audit has been delayed and largely discredited, and a new federal suit has recently been filed by the affected Mexican American Studies teachers, the once defiant Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) governing board could buckle under the state’s bullying and consider a resolution that effectively castrates one of their district’s most acclaimed programs.

Only months ago, TUSD officials vowed to “fight to the end” against the bizarre HB2281 law passed by the extremist Tea Party-controlled Arizona state legislature, which bans any school program that advocates the overthrow of the government. TUSD superintendent John Pedicone had defiantly challenged: “How can we be out of compliance with a law that’s unconstitutional?”

That sentiment seems to have waned quickly, as Arizona’s rabid state administrators ramped up threats to cut $15 million from the TUSD budget for any program non-compliance with the new law.

For rest of article see - http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/04/25/arizona-witch-hunt-showdown-on-tuesday-exclusive-interviews-with-ethnic-studies-teachers/

[blondeatlast]

1. Arizona has many, many problems--but it's politically expedient to pin all of them, somehow,

no matter how far the issue has to be stretched, on brown people.

I've lived here nearly my entire life; I can just look out my window and see the sun set gorgeously over the desert, but I'm ready to get out. Yesterday--like when we passed SB 1070. :cry:

[Lance_Boyle]

2. How is law forbidding school programs that advocate overthrow of the govt.

unconstitutional?

I doubt that school programs advocating Sharron Angle's "second remedy amendments" would be acceptable, either.

[Derechos]

3. The MAS program or Mexican American Studies program

is part of a broader ethnic studies program that seeks to provide educational materials on subject and perspectives that have historically been ignored by school curriculum makers. The programs have also seen academic successes as students who learn more about their heritgate and from a more culturally relevent perepctive have demonstrated higher test scores and better graduation rates. The only people who argue that these programs push for "revolution" are those ideologues who hate ethnic studies programs to begin with and likley are uncomfortable with the ethnic pluralism of our country.