As expected, Administrative Hearing Judge Lewis Kowal filed an order today closing the record in the appeal by the Tucson Unified School District’s in the matter of its Mexican American Studies classes. His final decision is now due on or before January 5.
The Judge has kept the record open, and it will be officially closed on December 16. The Judge then has twenty days to reach a final decision. Court observers had expected the judge to preserve as much time as possible, it is consider unlikely that the judge will reach his decision before the twenty day limit.
TUSD Governing Board member Michael Hicks, expressed gratitude that the judge was taking his time, “The judge told us that he was going to carefully study all materials and consider all evidence, and this demonstrates his commitment to making an informed finding.”
Testimony began on August 18, in the district’s appeal of the finding of noncompliance with Arizona law 15-112, by the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, John Huppenthal. The district is appealing the finding that TUSD’s Mexican American Studies classes are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, promote resentment towards a race or class of people, and advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals in violation of the law.
The appeal process has revealed much about the classes and why they were deemed inappropriate for grades K thru 12. The process has clarified many of the misunderstandings about the audit ordered by Superintendent Huppenthal and exposed the segregating classes and the manipulative resentment creating curriculum.
The first witness was John Stollar, Chief of Programs and Policy for the Arizona Department of Education. Stollar, a long time educator offered testimony as to the specifics of the controversial Cambium “audit” and his review of the department’s evidence. John Stollar took the stand to address the Cambium “audit,” the obstruction of the investigation by district officials, and the parallel investigation conducted by the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SOPI).
The highly irregular audit commissioned by the SOPI, found little wrong with the classes and has served to justify the district’s appeal and MAS proponents’ support. According to testimony, auditors only reviewed 9 out of 180 possible lesson units. This 5% of the curriculum could not be a representative sample from which to draw any conclusions, however 3 of the 9 units contained “an overabundance” of political material.”
Also testifying on the first day of hearings was Governing Board President and established educator, Dr. Mark Stegeman, who in emotional testimony, confirmed what many educators have been saying for years; the classes are a “cult.”
Dr. Stegeman, a well respected professor of Economics, read from notes he took during visits to Mexican American Studies classes this past spring. His extemporaneous notes describing his experience in MAS teacher Curtis Acosta’s class, included phrases such as “this is a political rally,” and “he is mostly entertaining kids not educating them.”
The ritualized clapping, commonly referred to as the unity or Casear Chavez clap at the start of the classes, the ritualized recitation of the “You are my other self” or “In Lak’ ek” chant during the class, and the political rally type atmosphere of the class along with the seemingly senseless events surrounding the classes in the past few months all “formed the foundation of my assessment.” Dr. Stegeman testified that the words “we are all still in the struggle” in one student’s personalized version of the “In Lak’ ek” chant, triggered a recollection of a book he had read years ago, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer, and he had an “epiphany.” His notes read, “this is a cult.”