It was September 2011, months before the Tucson Unified school board buckled under the weight of unrelenting political and financial pressure and voted to dismantle Mexican American Studies. Then-Attorney General Tom Horne, the man who started the anti-MAS crusade when he was Superintendent of Public Instruction, was part of a panel discussion on the TUSD program sponsored by the Arizona Mainstream Project. A press release for the event described what it called MAS’s “real objectives.”
“[T]hese include the overthrow of our government, ethnic resentment, and the redefining of ‘la familia.’ The TUSD Mexican-American Ethnic Studies program is widely seen as a ‘militant’ model to be spread throughout the country.”
Horne was asked what TUSD could do to comply with then-Education Superintendent John Huppenthal’s demands that the program comply with state law. He replied that the district’s only option was “to terminate the program.”
Horne said the program must be “destroyed,” invoking Cato’s obsessive call for warfare as a punch line, “Carthage must be destroyed.”
Horne is an educated man, so he would have understood the implications of his Carthage analogy. Ancient Carthage, on the North African coast, posed an existential threat to Rome during the Punic Wars — think Hannibal and his elephants crossing the Alps in 218 BC. Rome eventually triumphed over the darker-skinned invaders, destroying Carthage completely and selling its remaining population into slavery. The comparison of Carthage invading from the south being driven back and destroyed by a lighter skinned civilization, to white Arizona fighting off the invasion of its education system by Mexican American radicals is too obvious, and too racist, to be coincidental.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Wallace Tashima declared that the law, § 15-112, designed to destroy TUSD’s Mexican American Studies, cannot be enforced, because it
“was enacted and enforced, not for a legitimate educational purpose, but for (i) an invidious discriminatory racial purpose, and (ii) a politically partisan purpose – to shut down the TUSD MAS Program – in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.”
It’s a fitting irony that the tactics used by Tom Horne and John Huppenthal against MAS were repudiated in a court of law while both men have seen their reputations tarnished — one could even say, destroyed — because of a string of personal and professional improprieties compounded by their publicly exposed racism.
This judgement is a triumph of our legal system over racism and its use by cynical politicians. At the end of a year when racism and anti-semitism have turned mainstream, condoned by our president and echoed by venal politicians and street mobs, Judge Tashima’s unambiguous condemnation of the motivations behind § 15-112 is a breath of fresh air.
Now the question is, what’s next?
I would love to see us hop in a wayback machine and reconstruct the MAS program as it was before it was taken apart in 2012, staff and all. It was far from perfect. As a teacher with 30-plus years in public school classrooms and a student of U.S. education, I have never seen a perfect educational program. But it was pretty damn good, a successful program taught and administered by a group of dedicated educators. However, that’s not going to happen. There’s no way to bring the band back together. The staff members have scattered and factionalized.
It’s unlikely we’ll get the old program with a new staff either. The current school board still has two of its original anti-MAS members, Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks. The recently elected Rachel Sedgwick is a bit of a wild card on this particular issue, but I don’t see her as someone who would support a reinstatement of the MAS program.
Currently, TUSD has a “Culturally Relevant” curriculum which was constructed to fulfill the district’s need for multicultural courses while avoiding anything that might rattle the cages of the Arizona legislature and the Department of Education. With Judge Tashima’s decision, the curriculum can be modified without fear of state intervention if the district decides to. Books which were banned from classroom use after MAS was dismantled can be brought back. Some of the bolder parts of the earlier curriculum can return as well.
One thing that’s certain is, this issue won’t fade away any time soon. The future of the district’s ethnic studies program is sure to become a big deal once again. The community is filled with passionate supporters of the old MAS program, as well as equally passionate detractors. The University of Arizona has its own Department of Mexican American Studies which supported MAS and is likely to have strong, publicly stated opinions about what should happen next. The district’s board and administration will be forced to confront the issue head on, like it or not. Whether we’ll see a relatively orderly transition to a more robust program or a repeat of the rancor and disruption of the last MAS battles remains to be seen.
This article appears in Dec 28, 2017 – Jan 3, 2018.
This will be a real test of the current board which has many problems to deal with, including a new superintendent who is rebuilding an administrative team under battlefield board conditions. Could definitely affect the next board elections. Wait and see.
Horne thought dividing the State would be his vehicle to the governor’s office, by scaring voters with Commie revolutionaries were under their beds.
I knew this law was a violation of free speech for years, and served no positive purpose. It should not have taken this long to strike it down.
This outcome is perfect. Local districts able to set their own curriculum and having to live with the results. We know the result for Tucson Unified. 14,000 parents, 20 whole schools of students up and left Tucson Unified.
It was a disaster and now it is back on them.
Stanford University recently ranked all school districts in the nation. TUSD was in that ranking, 67th percentile, slightly below the average of Arizona schools of the 72nd percentile. But, for all practical purposes no different than the 50th percentile with only 5.1 years of progress in 5 years.
Parents of white students have no business in TUSD. Move to CF16, Vail, Sonoran Science Academy, private school. There are an array of alternatives even for those of modest incomes. Get off this sinking ship. Your kids will thank you.
The actions of Horne, Huppenthal and the other white reactionaries to kill the MAS program in AZ were a blatant effort to suppress the truth. Killing MAS was part of their overall mission to promote the far-right mythology of American exceptionalism. To them Horne and Huppenthal telling school children the truth about how Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were treated was “promoting resentment towards a race or class,” Using their logic, teaching about America’s ethnic cleansing policies towards Indians, the enslavement of African Americans and the enforcement of Jim Crow laws and customs throughout the country, the rounding up of law-abiding Issei and Nisei Japanese, attacks on freedom of speech during World War I and the early 1920s and the insanity of the McCarthy era with hunts would all be “promoting resentment towards a race or class.” Right-wingers can’t accept the truth about the myth of American exceptionalism. Empowering children enrolled in MAS classes did NOT turn them into American-haters. It merely taught them that we have a long way to go to meet our ideals and they have a lot of work to do to turn myth into reality.
Why it took so long to acknowledge for the courts to acknowledge that the anti-MAS law was blatantly racist is what is so surprising.
Thanks for proving the judge’s (and David’s) point, Nathan K.
Yes, by all means, take your precious white kids and hide them behind gates where the brown kids never go, and while you’re at it, put their tender little minds in sealed curriculum boxes so they never again are troubled with the racist history of their forebears. Surely that will solve everything.
Read “Occupied America” one of the texts for the class. It’s filled with historically questionable statements asserted as fact in a drive to portray America as a uniquely racist country that, by extension, should be overthrown.
There’s no doubt the previous MAS was an ideological program, not an educational one. Whether that belongs in the schools will mostly depend on whether or not you agree with the ideology.
I can see where a Mexican-American Ethnic Studies program would be appropriate for a university, and maybe even an elective course for H.S. seniors, but for a public school system in the U.S. What is the goal of the program? Increase the quality of life of the Mexican-American students or students in general while in school? Or if not the quality of life, the academic performance of students. Or will these studies decrease the level of prejudice and racism of the students, and thus decrease prejudice in our society? Will studying and emphasizing differences in ethnic groups and tribes result in a better society? Maybe, but show me the data.
Are today’s students really that different than students in the past? As male HS student (1948-53) I was primarily interested in two things: basketball and girls. I attended class because it was required and that’s were the girls were. It is very unlikely that a course on Western European (Scottish) – American ethnic studies would have been of significant interest to me, nor would it have changed my self confidence, my behavior, etc. , in a significant and positive way.
Again, what are the objectives of MAS program? Has anyone done a COST vs. BENEFIT analysis? Note: one of the costs is getting into pissing contest with the people controlling the allocation of funds. Not a good thing to do.
Denny G, the evidence was sound,and is not hard to find. The audit of the program by Nolan Cabrera of the UA showed that they were indeed successful at producing better academic results and more motivated students. As the mother of a high school student, I am a bit offended by the implication that nothing has changed since the post second world war period and am insulted by the idea that students should wait until college to see themselves represented in the history of this country. You and I, white people perhaps with freckles who’s heritage is European certainly never did need a European studies section because that is the bedrock of the old canon.we are the only people who DO see ourselves represented in history…actually you, as a male, probably a little more than me. Women also don’t figure much in history. My point is, you and I got what other students deserve without even having to ask for it!ALL history at that time and later, when I was a kid, was Western European Studies. To not recognize that everyone deserves to see their threads in the tapestry of history is closed minded at the very least, and quite racist,even if unintentionally, at its worst.
Hate America…and at the same time they teach socialism. What could go wrong with that? “Tis nobler to be broke and powerless?” Who moved my government cheese?
We have seen the way that public schools promoted self esteem. This is nothing more than the continuation of their guilt complex they absorbed from the radical left.
Hey Betts Putnam-Hidalgo, I very much appreciate your thoughtful comments, even though we do disagree, at least a bit. Unfortunately I haven’t seen the results of Mr. Cabrera’s study, but I am interested. I suspect that I’ll be disappointed with the methodology and the interpretation of the findings. And do results answer the cost versus benefit question? For example, will a Mexican-American student from a lower socioeconomic background be able to get a better job and realize a better quality of life as the result of participating in the Mexican-American Ethnics Study Program than if he or she was not in MAP’s.
I don’t doubt that students today face a much different environment than I did, but I don’t get the feeling that they are all that concerned about being represented in or by history. I sure wasn’t. Yeah, my ancestors, and yours, were probably indirectly or directly responsible for the genocide of the indigenous people in North America, or those they didn’t kill, were put on reservations, which to this day suck. However, I am not responsible for the actions of my ancestors, and there is no family record, going back to the late 18th century, that indicates any of them were directly responsible.
I see several issues in having a M-A Ethnics study. First, what constitutes a Mexican-Hispanic? Looking at the DNA, my granddaughter, who is 46% Great Britain, is also 13% Native American and 10% Iberian Peninsula (Spain & Portugal), respectively. The DNA results for two of my Mexican-American acquaintances are follows: A1: 30% Native American, 15% Iberian Peninsula, and 5% North Africa; A2: 46% Native American, 22% Iberian Peninsula, 10% African. What do these three females have in common? They are friendly, attractive, have dark hair and dark eyes, speak Spanish and they are all U.S. citizens. But with that mixture, should the program focus be on the ethnicity of native Americans, and if so which tribe, or Iberian Peninsula, or even Northwestern Africa?
2nd issue: What time frame does the study cover? Last 20, 100, 500, 1000, 100000 years?
3rd issue: After the struggling for many years to achieve integration in U.S. schools, should we be introducing a program that is promoting division and segregation by ethnic group? No! At least, not unless there is a very strong reason to do so, and there isnt.
I believe that the folks promoting MAP have the best of intentions, but they are essentially attempting to solve a non-problem. And an unintended consequence is that they have alienated some jerks who have, or can have, a significant effect on the funding of Tucson schools. Back to cost versus benefit.