The notice of noncompliance John Huppenthal sent out to TUSD on his last day as Arizona’s superintendent of schools Jan. 2, saying some of the district’s culturally relevant classes violated state law, is still on the table. But school district Superintendent H.T. Sanchez says Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas is willing to collaborate to soon put the issue to rest.
Sanchez and Douglas met for an hour and a half in Phoenix today to chat about TUSD’s culturally relevant curriculum, and specifically about the U.S. history and English from a Mexican-American and African American perspective classes that are reportedly in violation of HB 2281—the Jan Brewer statute that outlawed TUSD’s Mexican American Studies program about two years ago.
The meeting went so well, according to Sanchez, Douglas even invited him to join an advisory committee that’ll work to implement studies on the contributions Latinos have made to Arizona and the rest of the country into the state’s Common Core Standards, or College and Career Ready Standards.
“I don’t feel that the state agency (Arizona Department of Education) wants to shut down our program, but wants to take a look at how we can work together and address any concerns…with the law (HB 2281) that is in the 9th Circuit right now. Until that case is done, the law is the law,” Sanchez said during a press conference this afternoon at Utterback Magnet Middle School. “If her desire was to eliminate ethnic studies in TUSD, she would not have invited me to serve in a committee that is going to (create) instructional standards that provide the perspective of Latinos into the state curriculum.”
Now, it’s all about opening the classroom doors to members of the state Department of Education, show them what is going on, the materials being taught, so that trust and communication can be rebuilt. All of that will hopefully lead to the state not cutting TUSD’s funding (if the district doesn’t fix whatever the state doesn’t like in the next two months, they face losing 10 percent of the state’s monthly aid).
Sanchez said he isn’t concerned—and a big chunk of that is because he knows his district is not teaching hatred and instigating students to overthrow the government, which is what Huppenthal alleges.
“(In the classroom), you see students that are eager to learn, you see teachers who love their kids and love teaching, and that is the best thing that could happen to us is have them come in and see what we do, meet our kids, meet our teachers, understand their passion, to understand what they are trying to put forward to the students, and I’m not opposed to an open dialogue,” he said.
In regards to whether Douglas likes or dislikes these culturally relevant classes, Sanchez said that during the talk, Douglas suggested all TUSD schools should offer them rather than just a handful—surprised?
But keep in mind that just because Douglas is not going after the content of the classes itself, it all is safe. The tables have turned to looking at how the content is being taught, and who knows if the teachers are going to be willing to modify their procedures and the relationship they have with their students to comply with the state.
This article appears in Jan 1-7, 2015.
After hearing Sanchez comments last night…. I wonder if I should have VOTED for someone other than Douglas….IF she cant see what these people are doing…perhaps she DOES need to be recalled.. and Ive voted Republican for 35+ years…. I do NOT support classes that teach divisiveness and reverse racism………Mr. Sanchez.. and YES I am also of Mexican descent, Legal Mexican descent.
We can trust H.T. Sanchez. He only lies when he needs to.
And I’m sure he’s very upbeat about his indoctrination classes since he met with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, the communists, socialists and radical chicano separatists at the NAME conference.
As long as they keep teachings of that phony crap called La Raza out of the curriculum, I really don’t have a problem with cultural diversity. Douglas needs to step carefully as the Grijalvistas are always laying traps……
Close TUSD.
Sadly I learned over the weekend that the person called “Rat T” is not actually a person, but rather a “cranky personality simulator” program dreamed up by some kids at U of A Comp Sci years ago. His original source code is long gone and it’s running on an old server in the basement which is slated for demolition to make way for the new “Never Settle” shoe collection storage room.
TW staffers and Tucsonans in general, get a blog started, get a Kick-Starter rolling, let’s not lose this valuable resource that automatically and autonomously gives balance to the news on here.
MAS ran for decades and the only result was a much higher high school graduation rate for Hispanic students enrolled in that program than for Hispanic students not enrolled. Plus, more of those enrolled went to college than those not in MAS.
Side note: some people fear these classes because they think the USA will be overthrown and Arizona returned to Mexico by MAS students. This is, I think, a stupid argument designed to deflect the real reason for wishing to suppress these classes. Those wanting their elimination also want to eliminate all Southern Arizona cultures but the Anglo culture.
Southern AZ has a rich multicultural history dating back thousands of years. Instead of trying to suppress and eradicate it all political parties should embrace it because:
1) It’s fair. They were here first.
2) It enriches our lives. Viewing your own culture through another can give you a wealth of understanding as to its benefits and disadvantages.
3) Uniqueness sells. People come here and leave here with exposure to many different cultures which give them a distinct advantage over your regular homogeneous person.
If Southern AZ capitalized on its history and multicultural society instead of trying to suppress it we could be the jewel in the crown of the western USA.
What, Again ought to be called, “Not the same tired crap again”. Copy and paste is not a literary style.
Guiseppe clearly doesn’t know.
RickJason sounds like an old, very white, dude yelling at the TV.
Rat just plain doesn’t like much of anything not endorsed by Faux News.
It is, and has been for a very long time now, very clear that most U.S. History texts used in non-college-level history classes in this country are near-xenophobic in their Anglicized version of how this country was founded and events that took place during its first 250+ years. Wanting to tell the rest of the story should not be a crime. Using a song to emphasize the shortcomings of the currently-taught version of U.S. History is not fomenting rebellion or endorsing a race war.
Ldonyo – so much guilt for being white. Let it go, let it go.
Maybe Mr. Cooper might want to do some research into this subject before he shoots his mouth off and look like a complete idiot(too late). One of the things he could do is look up the textbooks that was being taught in our schools about how the U.S. completely stole the SW. The other item he could look up is how their own leaders advocate, in print, violence to overthrow the U.S. and take their country back, making statements to the effect of deporting all Gringos back to Europe (I wish they’d try!) and “kill all Gringos”(briiiing it, please!). These texts along with recent threats of “violent revolution” by La Raza Retard Leaders, continue to be circulated with some teachers (La Raza brainwashed)even tho’ they’ve been outlawed. In other words, they are criminals but the liberal left will try and make it sound legal. Kind of like the Illegal Alien situation and rewarding the criminals.
Yo’ ladodo, back away from the Kool Aid!
OK so I’m not a person.
Oh look, it’s raining right now.
Rick Jason, talk to parents whose kids are in the classes. We know that what you describe is a fantasy. I would never allow my child in such a class. He is in the classes now. Do you really think that the parents whose children have taken these classes are fine with what you describe? That is the acid test. You have to answer that question in the affirmative to believe that what you describe is what goes on in the classes.
As for the US stealing the southwest from Mexico, well, yeah, that’s what happened. It was called “Manifest Destiny.”
Douglas doesn’t gave a clue why it’s there. She doesn’t have a clue what her job is. She doesn’t have a clue about anything. But by gosh, we poked Obama and Pelosi in the eye by electing her. The only thing we have done is poke ourselves, as Arizona citizens, in the eye.