This is already old news, but I’m pretty sure it never made it onto the Range. From the Huffington Post:
Arizona’s new immigration law is just about crime, its supporters say, but given that the state’s new education policy equates ethnic studies programs with high treason, they may not be using the commonly accepted definition of “crime.”
Under the ban, sent to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer by the state legislature Thursday, schools will lose state funding if they offer any courses that “promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
Legislators have somehow grouped promoting the overthrow of the U.S. government with ethnic studies classes, and Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American studies department is specifically mentioned as a target of the new restrictions.
The story also links to a Wall Street Journal story about a new law that could ban Arizona teachers with heavy accents from teaching English classes. The story goes on to say that the law is especially ironic being that the state spent the last decade recruiting teachers who speak English as a second language.
It’s going to take a public-relations miracle to resurrect the state’s image after all this.
Update: The Arizona Daily Star is reporting that Tucson Unified School District has no plans of changing its curriculum as a result of the law.
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2010.
“It’s going to take a public-relations miracle to resurrect the state’s image after all this.”
I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit.
My goodness…..this sort of stuff is totally dangerous…and stupid. We are Americans with a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. A study of our own heritage as well as other cultures has always been an important part of education. Wake up Arizona citizens! We need to get real and vote out the politicians that are fear mongering and passing these ridiculous laws!!!
One-sided teaching has always been the root of ethnic prejudice. Teaching about everyone’s culture leads to understanding and communication with everyone.
The problem with the issue is extreme positions that range from the greater Mexico position of “la Coalicion de Derechos Humanos” to that of extreme conservative views that are definitely racist.
Neither side seems to allow for a middle ground position – that middle ground position is probably the feeling of most citizens of Arizona. We don’t want the criminals, drug and weapons dealers and gangs and cannot just allow anyone to cross the border freely. These are not migrants they are illegal aliens.
What is going to happen is that Federal law will be imposed without profiling. This will mean that eventually force will be used to close the border without regard to who is crossing since no profiling can be used. The result will be innocents being killed and we will lose those that we would like to have come into the country.