The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has upheld most of the Arizona law that ended up banning the Mexican-American studies program. However, the ruling did say that portions of the statute violate the First Amendment, and that there are “genuine” issues regarding whether the enforcement of the law was “motivated at least in part by discriminatory intent.”
The court ordered the latter to go to trial in the near future.
The law, enacted by the state Legislature in 2010, prohibits a school district or charter school from offering courses that: “1. Promote the overthrow of the U.S. government; 2. Promote resentment toward a race of class of people; 3. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group; 4. Or advocate for ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
Part 3 was declared unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment, while the court said parts 2 and 4 “are not overbroad in violation of the First Amendment,” and “are not vague in violation of the due process clause.”
The case was originally filed in 2010 by ten Tucson Unified School District teachers and the director of TUSD’s MAS program. The suit was later picked up by TUSD students, Maya Arce, Korina Lopez and Nicolas Dominguez (Lopez and Dominguez withdrew their appeal after they graduated high school, according to court documents).
Attorneys for both sides presented their arguments in January. At the time, I spoke with a member of the defense team, Anjana Malhotra, who said she felt they did well.
She said the court was concerned that the law was enforced regardless of the positive effects MAS has had on students. Several reports have proven that MAS accelerated student achievement and lowered drop-out rates.
From an email she wrote me in January:
In defending the Arizona ethnic studies ban passed for the purpose and effect of exclusively targeting and eliminating the highly successful TUSD’s Mexican American Studies classes, Ariziona made three major points in the Ninth Circuit argument today that undercut its argument that the law and its actions were unconstitutional.
First, Arizona repeatedly argued that the substantial academic achievement Mexican American students gained from taking MAS classes was ‘irrelevant’ to the facial and as-applied equal protection claims. To the contrary, and as the Judges correctly raised in questioning Arizona, the fact that the Arizona Legislature and Huppenthal exclusively eliminated classes that benefited Mexican Americans, and thus burdening Mexican Americans exclusively, is evidence of intentional discrimination supporting the argument that the statute and its enforcement violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Second, Arizona argued that a Chinese American History class would violate the statute, regardless of content – demonstrating the impermissible and sweeping overbreadth, vagueness and equal protection problems with the law. This proposition gave the Court and the audience pause—and demonstrates how the statute gives the state unlimited power to enforce the law (and did) in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner violating the Supreme Court’s test for facial and as-applied vagueness. Further, given Tom Horne’s and legislators’ express insistence that ARS 15-112’s use of the term “ethnic group” did not include to white or European ethnic groups such as Greeks and Romans, Arizona’s contention that it would ban Chinese American History, just as Mexican American classes regardless of content, establishes that the statute and enforcement is in direct violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by discriminating on the basis of race.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas said in a statement that her goal is to teach Arizona’s children “appreciation not discrimination,” and reassured that she is a supporter of the anti-MAS law.
“Holding a color palette to a child’s skin to determine which instruction they should receive is abhorrent in our society,” Douglas said. “If we are to stamp out racism and discrimination, shouldn’t we expand ethnic studies statewide and teach all children of all backgrounds an inclusive course of studies? What lesson do we teach if we design classes for our children based on their color or ethnic background?”
“If you look at (the law), it’s hard to see why anyone would want to teach any of that,” she added. “As the country gets excited about the Confederate flag on the capitol in South Carolina, I don’t see why they also would not want to do away with academic segregation and teaching people by their ethnicity rather than as children under the laws of the land and in the sight of God.”
The MAS program was gutted by TUSD in 2012, as the district faced losing state funding. It was later replaced by the culturally relevant curriculum, which again got TUSD in trouble with the state back in January.
On his last day as schools superintendent, John Huppenthal sent TUSD a letter of noncompliance, threatening the district to take 10 percent of monthly state aid, or about $14 million, if it did not fix the issues. Douglas allegedly did not have a problem with the content of the courses, rather the way teachers were implementing it in the classroom. (I sat through one of the classes that were red-flagged by Huppenthal in January.)
TUSD was given until March to fix whatever the state said was noncompliant. When the deadline arrived, Douglas announced TUSD had mended its wrongs, but that the state would continue to monitor these classes through the end of the school year.
The Tucson Weekly later found out that significant changes had been made to the culturally relevant curriculum, according to Cholla High culturally relevant educator, Corey Jones. Jones taught U.S. history from a Mexican-American perspective at Cholla (he got in trouble for bringing Rage Against the Machine lyrics into the course). He was removed from the classroom the day representatives with the Arizona Department of Education were supposed to visit his class. (He had a lot to say about what went down, and I wrote about that in Escape Goat.)
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2015.
What will the Grijalva’s do? Their entire life’s work, utilizing skills honed with communists, socialists, domestic terrorists, racists and bigots will not be allowed.
Let’s review one more time;
1. Promote the overthrow of the U.S. government;
2. Promote resentment toward a race of class of people;
3. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group;
4. Or advocate for ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.
The students demanded to be taught things they didn’t know because…? What’s up with that? They graduated and dropped their suit. Grade fixing to promote them?
These little “mexicans” needed to be DEPORTED period. If you want to learn about Mexico, DO IT in Mexico.. and Yes.. before you Anglos SCREAM.. I Am of Mexican Descent and am LEGAL. Try that on for size.
Just for the record, I’m not Mexican. However if any event occurs on American soil, then logic would indicate that it should be considered to be a part of American history. Or there’s always the other alternative, the one most popular here in America. We can always stuff the skeleton of Mexican American history in the closet right along with the rest of our collection, and pretend it never happened.
There’s a big difference between something occuring on American soil or the cultural heritage of a certain ethnic group. Want to learn about Mexican heritage, go to the library or use the internet.
The justices have spoken its over stop wasting my tax dollars scum.
I certainly support making curriculum relevant to the students to keep their interest.
That said, the MAS program in Tucson was little short of a political indoctrination program run by a small cadre of radical politically motivated individuals seeking long term social and governmental change and using education as a means to that end.
That has no place in our education system and is unfair to the students, not least because facts often take a back seat to dogma in that situation. Read some of the curriculum. “Occupied America” is a good place to start. Then fact check.
Jim Kelly, definition of the word heritage,
1. property that is or may be inherited; an inheritance
Synonym : inheritance, birthright, patrimony, legacy, bequest
valued objects and qualities such as cultural traditions, unspoiled countryside, and historic buildings that have been passed down from previous generations
the richness of our diverse cultural heritage
a sense of history and heritage
Synonym : tradition, history, past, background, culture, customs
If this is the true definition of heritage then what is the problem ? The Mexican American was here way before any white man ever made a settlement in the area. The only reason I can think of, off hand, is just plain and simple unadulterated ignorance. Why make such a big fuzz over ethnic studies, creating a mountain out of a mole hill. I’ve researched in how many cases of assault on white people are directly tied into the program, and there is absolutely no proof of any kind. As far as the launching an attack to take over the U.S. Government by the students involved in the program is preposterous.
I hope you have a sense of humor,
Thomas Horne, abolished Ethnic studies, and averted a take over by highly skilled revolutionist, all of whom are of Hispanic decent, who threw the study of their culture posed a threat to the American way of life, and national security. The radical group calling themselves the Tucson unified school district was dismantled.
Also in the news, Santa Clause and his Alf’s affiliation with al-Qaida has been verified. Hand written notes taken from the raid at Osman Bin Laden’s residence, by navy Seal’s uncovered a diabolical plot to deliver bomb’s wrapped up to resemble Christmas gifts this year, therefore by order of President Obama, the holidays have been postponed.
Author, plain, and simple, unadulterated ignorance.
While I was opposed to some of the philosophy behind and materials used by the MAS program the radical and racist comments that can be seen here lend credence to the necessity of these types of classes, not just for children of Mexican descent but for all students…..
Of course the Weekly STILL refuses to report the truth about HOW the Raza Studies Program was exposed and defeated by a small handful of local activists.
I’m talking about Laura Leighton, Lee Ewing, Clyde Philips and Wes Bramhall, all members of Arizonans for Immigration Control, who worked for decades to bring to public view the issue of racial and political indoctrination in Tucson schools.
The power of the so-called “Raza Movement” was at its zenith on April 10, 2006, when 15,000 demonstrators, the majority ‘pro-raza” indoctrinated students, marched to Armory Park, Tucson Arizona, and demanded amnesty and permanent open borders.
There they rioted when confronted by 15 counter-demonstrators who declared “Cesar Chavez OPPOSED illegal immigration! Arizona is NOT Mexico! Here we Americans will make our stand!” and burned two Mexican flags to protest Mexico’s refusal to educate and provide jobs to Mexico’s poor, effectively driving them out of Mexico to seek jobs in America, and (most importantly) to send home remittance money, equaling Mexico’s revenues from the sale of oil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUSrLBt521…
Discriminating against the teaching of racism and hate is not against the law, I don’t care what the morons in the black robes say.
Look at those smiling faces, it certainly gives validation the the quote, “ignorance is bliss”.
AZPaul – this ruling had nothing to do with teaching against racism.
Maybe you just didn’t take the time to read. So just for you…a repeat of how H.T. Sanchez and Adelita Grijalva broke the law. Are you in favor of promoting the overthrow of the U.S. government like the Grijalva’s do?
1. Promote the overthrow of the U.S. government;
2. Promote resentment toward a race of class of people;
3. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group;
4. Or advocate for ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.
report
I find it very sad that including the Mexican studies in curriculum in an area that has a high percentage of Mexicans is talked about in such a narrow, biased way. Huppenthal ( I saw some of his e-mails) and Horne ( I heard him speak more often than I really wanted to) both had views about other races that I found abhorrent so I cannot use them ever as a sane unbiased resource.
I hope that Arizona continues to have programs that encourages Mexicans to be proud of their heritage as I was taught to be proud of mine even if my ancestors made many mistakes. Teaching history and culture of the white settlers was very commonplace when I was growing up. My community was Dutch and I learned a lot about the Netherlands and we had a Dutch festival which included learning and creating authentic Dutch costumes. The history of the Dutch moving in and taking land over that was inhabited by Native Americans was not always pretty but I learned about the Ottawa Natives.
. I have not examined the program in Tucson but I have heard from many that it is not at all about teaching against the U.S. or the government. Some of the activities by the U.S. and taking their land has not been humane in many ways. So does this mean the students are not suppose to learn about it? Are we going to whitewash history because some people are uncomfortable? Some of you here fail to embrace the idea that we have much to be grateful for our Mexicans and their culture and the U.S. has made mistakes.
In addition, Diane Douglas said, “As the country gets excited about the Confederate flag on the capitol in South Carolina, I don’t see why they also would not want to do away with academic segregation and teaching people by their ethnicity rather than as children under the laws of the land and in the sight of God.”
Now why in the world would she compare the fury about the flying of the symbol of slavery, to teaching Hispanic students about their roots, heritage and culture? Then she refers to this as academic segregation. I am glad my schools didn’t compare my learning about the Netherlands, the Dutch and that culture that was in the present and the past to the upset about flying a symbol of slavery and academic segregation. My parents would have been very, very unhappy if she made that comment about learning about the Dutch settlers’ history, culture, temperament and how that affects us in the present. It sure seems like we have different values and judging criteria depending on our race in this country.
Guardians writes “I have not examined the program in Tucson but I have heard from many…”
Says it all, doesn’t it. Admit ignorance on the subject and then defend it.
Well Guardian, the lawyers and the court did examine the program and found it in violation of law.