salmonrojo
¡Poesía está en la calle!
Resistencia Bookstore
casa de Red Salmon Arts
1801-A South First St.
Austin, Texas
(512) 416-8885
revolu@swbell.net
Apr 27th, 2011 @ 1:16 pm
How YOU can help to help save Ethnic Studies in Arizona schools
Here’s a re-cap of the situation: Mexican American/Chicano Studies is under a frontal attack by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and other Mexican haters. Ostensibly, HB 2281 outlaws the teaching of “ethnic studies” in Arizona, but in reality it targets SPECIFICALLY and ONLY the Mexican American Studies Department in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD)—HB 2281 does not apply to any other ethnic studies program or any other school district in Arizona. Horne’s et al.’s attack on Mexican American Studies revolves around the notions that MAS courses are “un-American,” ”un-patriotic,” and “chauvinistic.” [Please note that Tom Horne has never stepped foot into a MAS classroom or observed a MAS class, despite repeated invitations from MAS faculty all over the TUSD district.] An audit of the Mexican American Studies Department in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) engineered by the newly-elected Arizona Superintendent of Education John Huppenthal, who campaigned on the platform of “…stopping La Raza,” is, we believe, a thinly-disguised attempt to provide a justification to severely limit the MAS department in TUSD (to the point of making it ineffective) or to eliminate it is currently underway. The attack on TUSD’s MAS curriculum is bipartisan: Horne and Huppenthal are Republicans. Joining them in going after MAS is Democrat TUSD School Board member Mark Stegeman. This coming Tuesday, April 26 [the meeting has been postponed due to protests but will be rescheduled very soon], Stegeman will introduce a proposal to marginalize MAS courses by removing them from the core curriculum. That is, they would no longer fulfill graduation-credit requirements for History and English as they do now. It is important to know that MAS courses are already elective—i.e, no one is required to take them—but they are an integral part of the core curriculum (i.e., satisfy state educational/graduation requirements). We need help on three fronts: 1. We are asking people to e-mail Stegeman and ask him to withdraw his proposal… 2. TUSD board members Adelita Grijalva and Judy Burns have indicated that they will vote against Stegeman’s proposal. Democrat Stegeman is joined by the newly-elected Tea Party member Michael Hicks, who campaigned on the platform of eliminating Mexican American Studies, in going after the MAS curriculum—which begs the question: in what warped universe is it possible and/or acceptable for a Democrat to join forces with a Tea Party Mexican hater against our community, one of the most loyal and steadfast Democratic constituencies? The fifth board member, Miguel Cuevas, is the key, swing vote, but he has not indicated how he will vote. We are asking people to e-mail Cuevas and ask him to vote “No” on Stegeman’s proposal should the campaign to get Stegeman to withdraw his proposal not be successful. Stegeman’s and Cuevas’ e-mail addresses are: Horne, Huppenthal, Stegeman, Hicks and other enemies of MAS and of our community have the mistaken notion that support for MAS is concentrated in and limited to people who have a vested interest, e.g., MAS teachers and their families, the activist community (whom Horne et al. consider the “Reconquista crowd”), etc. IT IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE that they see that MAS—and what it stands for and does (e.g., statistics show that students who take MAS courses in TUSD have a higher graduation rate than comparable counterparts who do not take MAS courses)—has widespread support. Please, if you have the time and energy, send emails stating your support for the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson Unified School District! If you can’t get directly involved (send letters or emails, or go to the board meeting) please spread this information far and wide. We need to show the AZ legislators that this is not a Tucson issue or a Latino issue — this stretches farther than the immediate people it impacts! This impacts all of us, every one who wants to see more inclusive and less biased education in our schools! If you would like the emails of other people to contact, please drop me a message in my ask box. I don’t want to overwhelm people with information, but we need your help! For more information, including statistics about the graduation rates and AIMS (Arizona standardized test) rates of MAS students compared to the rest of the district and the personal stories of those people involved, go toSave Ethnic Studies. I know everyone is hurting right now, but they could really use any donations you can make, too. At the risk of stating the obvious: whatever progress our community has achieved over the years has come about because (1) people of principle within our community stood up in defense of our community, and (2) we have reached out and engaged other (non-Mexican/Latino) communities, and people of principle within those communities have stood with us. We have prevailed against great odds before, and we can prevail again today…BUT ONLY if we come together and take action!
Reblogged from luchador@s.
