A key passage in Arizona's HB 2281, the "ethnic studies ban" for elementary and secondary schools, reads:
A. A SCHOOL DISTRICT OR CHARTER SCHOOL IN THIS STATE SHALL NOT INCLUDE IN ITS PROGRAM OF INSTRUCTION ANY COURSES OR CLASSES THAT INCLUDE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. PROMOTE THE OVERTHROW OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.
2. PROMOTE RESENTMENT TOWARD A RACE OR CLASS OF PEOPLE.
3. ARE DESIGNED PRIMARILY FOR PUPILS OF A PARTICULAR ETHNIC GROUP.
4. ADVOCATE ETHNIC SOLIDARITY INSTEAD OF THE TREATMENT OF PUPILS AS INDIVIDUALS. HB 2281
Critics have maintained since the law's passage in 2010 that this language is so broad that Arizona's wingnut politicians could use it to abolish just about any multicultural course they don't like. Consider Native American literature: many of the finest books, stories, and poems in the curriculum do indeed "promote resentment" toward the invading culture that destroyed the environment and a way of life. Here, for instance, is a passage from Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, one of the most frequently taught novels in Native American literature courses:
The snow-covered mountain remained, without regard to titles of ownership or the white ranchers who thought they possessed it. They logged the trees, they killed the deer, bear, and mountain lions, they built their fences high; but the mountain was greater than any or all of these things. The mountain outdistanced their destruction, just as love had outdistanced death.
The book is filled with similar passages, where Silko reflects on the treatment of American Indians who have returned from World War II, only to find their land, heritage, and rights stolen by Anglo "destroyers." Clearly the novel and others like it "promote resentment" and "advocate ethnic solidarity," and could probably be eliminated from most Arizona schools on those two points alone if some bigoted blowhard got a bug up his butt about Silko's interpretation of Southwest history. It's for that reason that Native peoples joined the protests in Tucson when the state clamped down on the district's Mexican American Studies program (MAS). The American Indians' cultural heritage could be next. And whose after that?
Anyone who's followed the ethnic studies controversy in Arizona knows the politicians objective in passing HB 2281 was to shut down MAS, offered by the giant Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). Yes, the language in the bill is broad but the wingers' target was specific. At the time, state school superintendent Tom Horne said MAS teaches students to hate America, and he alleged it's a training ground for Mexicans who want to "take back" Arizona. Citing HB 2281's unlawful provisions, Horne said the classes are "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group," but he failed to mention that some of TUSD's schools are 90% Hispanic, while the entire district is more than 60% Hispanic. Duh, of course some courses are designed for "a particular ethnic group" -- the one that defines southern Arizona. Captain John Smith's saga at Jamestown just doesn't resonate as much as the stories in Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement by Arturo Rosales, a history professor at Arizona State University.
Nor did Horne note that most of the community stood solidly behind MAS because their children performed better in classes that instilled a sense of pride in the students' heritage. TUSD's superintendent, John Pedicone, even noted that MAS students have higher AIMS scores and are three times more likely to go to college. Horne remained unimpressed.
State schools chief Tom Horne ... said he believes the Mexican-American studies program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people. Public schools should not be encouraging students to resent a particular race, he said. HuffPo
I doubt many Latino or indigenous persons need a high school class to tell them they've been oppressed. If they didn't already know it, Horne and the state just demonstrated it again.
In 2010, Tom Horne ran for Attorney General. The ethnic studies ban and its ugly sister, the "papers please" law, were the key ingredients of his red-meat platform. This being Arizona, where Arpaio-loving Maricopa County tends to control statewide races, he naturally won. The Republican candidate who ran to replace Horne as state school superintendent, John Huppenthal, proudly endorsed the ethnic studies ban. A career politician who favors charter schools and a smaller education budget, Huppenthal defeated Penny Kotterman, a public school advocate and long-time educator. Huppenthal, who never taught a day in his life, got his wish for a smaller education budget: last session the legislature cut $242 million from K-12. Good job, John. Once in office, Huppenthal even out-crazied his predecessor when it came to HB 2281:
Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal has previously stated his belief that the ethnic studies ban should be extended to universities as well, though the bill only applies to elementary and secondary public schools. Daily Wildcat
Oh, great, let's whitewash history from kindergarten through grad school. As the new school superintendent, one of Huppenthal's first acts was to commission an audit to prove to him and other Mexican bashers at the legislature that MAS violates HB 2281. They'd heard rumors about the activist teachers in Tucson, they needed proof! He allocated $110,000 of his agency's funds for the study, but when the report was turned in ... whoops.
[T]he audit conducted by the Florida-based Cambium Learning, Inc (which was commissioned by Huppenthal himself) found that none of the four prongs of the law were violated by any of the various literature, history, government or art courses that MASD offers. In addition, the audit, which is overwhelmingly positive, depicts courses that are popular with students and the community, and, more importantly, effective.
"High school juniors taking a MASD course are more likely to pass the reading and writing portion of the AIMS subject tests if they had previously failed those subtests in their sophomore year. Consequently, high school seniors enrolled in a MASD course are more likely to graduate than their peers... [Student] achievement is due to the sense of pride that develops through their accomplishments with highly effective teachers..." New Times
my emphasis
Makes no difference to Huppenthal -- just lie, which is what he did last year when he declared MAS out of compliance with the new law. In almost every speech he complained that the program's teachers vilified Ben Franklin, praised Che Guevara, and "indoctrinated" students with Marx, even though he couldn't cite a specific violation of the ethnic studies law. Huppenthal then threatened to enact another provision in HB 2281, which directs the superintendent to withhold 10% of a district's funds if even one course violates the ethnic studies ban. After a half-year of legal and curricular wrangling, that's exactly what Huppenthal did in early January when he announced the state would, retroactively to last August, keep 10% of TUSD's funding, more than $14 million, until they scrapped MAS.
The decision by Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal mirrors his earlier findings that the district's Mexican-American Studies program violated state law and carries out his earlier threat to withhold 10 percent of the district's monthly state aid until it follows the law. Fox11.com
Tucson Unified School District had at least three choices: 1) defy Huppenthal and continue to offer MAS, sacrificing the state funding; 2) take the state to court over Huppenthal's ruling; or 3) cave in and cancel MAS. After a district court appeal was shot down, the district chose #3:
And buckle the board did. It had other legal options. It could have challenged Huppenthal in superior court. But the board was hijacked by quislings willing to do Huppenthal's bidding. MAS students and the community in general showed up en masse to speak out against the move, but the board did not entertain other options. New Times
The board's decision led to immediate actions. Titles like Rudolfo Anaya's seminal Bless Me, Ultima were banned from the classroom. So were the works of those Mexican radicals Henry David Thoreau and William Shakespeare -- 80 books in all. DA Morales, who's been all over this story since the beginning in the Three Sonorans blog, writes today that at least one Huppenthal brown-noser on the TUSD board wants even more titles eliminated. After watching the video interviews that Morales conducted with students and teachers, Stephen Lemons reported today,
Students have told how forbidden books were boxed up in front of them on orders of TUSD administrators... Chicano literature teacher Yolanda Sotelo explained ... that she was told that TUSD monitors would visit her classroom to make sure she wasn't venturing into taboo realms. New Times
If the wingers' intent was to erase ethnic solidarity from the classroom, they couldn't have chosen a worse tactic -- banning books and an entire voice from the curriculum. TUSD serves approximately 13,000 students, and fewer than 700 are enrolled in MAS. Still, the controversy has mobilized many more students, teachers, and parents of all backgrounds, who've now had a first-hand experience of the "oppression" that the state says the students should not be taught. Pot, meet kettle.
And that experience has only created more solidarity. These are the kids, after all, who chained themselves to Tucson's Border Patrol office during the SB 1070 protests. They're the same students who took over a TUSD board meeting last year when it appeared the board was about to cave in to the state's demands. When Huppenthal announced his decision earlier this month, student marches and walkouts took place. And now, with the district's appeal tossed aside, two students have filed their own lawsuit, claiming an infringement of their First Amendment rights. U.S. Circuit Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima recently ruled that the students have standing to pursue the case.
The irony now comes full circle. The very things HB 2281 was looking to suppress -- ethnic solidarity and resentment of a reactionary Anglo hegemony -- have been encouraged by cynical men playing racial politics. New Times
And in a year or less, many of these students will vote.
Final note: Yesterday, Democracy Now! posted a 46-minute video debate between superintendent John Huppenthal and Richard Martinez, an attorney representing the teachers and students who hope to save MAS. Toss back a shot every time Huppenthal mentions Marx, and you'll be sprawled on the floor before the debate ends.