A few weeks ago a heated debate associated with the state of Arizona developed when Governor Jan Brewer signed the nation’s toughest bill on illegal immigration into law. The Arizona law requires that all immigrants carry their alien registration documents at all times, as well as authorizing police to question people if they have a reasonable suspicion that they are illegal immigrants. It also targets those who hire illegal immigrant laborers or knowingly transport them. This means that a failure to carry immigration documents is a criminal act and gives police broad powers to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.
On the heels of the controversial law, Governor Brewer has just signed a bill that attacks the ethnic studies programs in local state school districts. It specifically targets the A Tucson Unified School District program that provides and offers courses in Native American, African American, and Mexican American studies that focus on the culture, history and literature regarding the contribution and influences of these cultures in America and its history.
Signed this week, the bill disallows: classes that advocate ethnic solidarity; that are designed primarily for students of a particular race, or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group. Their argument is that these types of programs encourage students to resent other races. Therefore, classes that advocate ethnic solidarity and collective responsibility should be prohibited.
State School Chief Tom Horne, who is also a Republican currently running for state attorney general, suggest that such programs promote “ethnic chauvinism” as well as segregate “students by race.” In addition, we went on to assert that the Tucson program is “just like the Old South, and it’s long past time that we prohibited it.”
The 22 specific courses offered at four Tucson high schools in history, government, and literature will exist no more if Senate Bill 1069 becomes law. As a result, if school districts do not comply, punitive fiats will result in a district or charter school losing 10 percent of its state funds each month. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
For more with Dr. Stephens, visit twitter.com/rawdawgbuffalo and http//:rawdawgb.blogspot.com.
