On Friday, Arizona’s law prohibiting courses that teach ethnic solidarity, rather than treating other students as individuals, was upheld as constitutional in a Federal District Court ruling. Judge Wallace Tashima found three of the four provisions of the law served a “legitimate pedagogical interest.”
In a statement released Monday, Attorney General Tom Horne said, “This is a victory for ensuring that public education is not held captive to radical, political elements and that students treat each other as individuals – not on the basis of the race they were born into.”
However, TUSD’s superintendent, John Pedicone says the law will not change the way the district has done things in the past. Pedicone advised staff on Monday that the ruling by Judge Tashima against one portion of the law, § 15-112(A)(3) was “beneficial” to the District and will allow them “to develop classes designed for a single ethnic group.” Pedicone expressed relief that they could “design classes for a single ethnic group” and not get into a “a political battle with the state.”
Contrary to Pedicone’s stated plan, the Bury court ordered in the desegregation case that the District “develop and implement culturally relevant courses of instruction designed to reflect the history, experiences, and culture of African American and Mexican American communities.”
One plaintiff representative in the desegregation case, who asked for their identity to remain unpublished in light of pending appeals, said in response to Pedicone’s plan, “I fought for 30 years against segregation and these people are hell bent on keeping it.”
At the same time as Pedicone was informing staff to proceed with the development of single ethnicity geared classes, the former Mexican American Studies teachers sent out a call to action and plea for money.
The teacher’s group, “SaveEthnicStudies,” sent out an email to supporters:
“The Acosta/Arce case is not over. The immediate task is to decide what is the next step: seek reconsideration of the decision or file an appeal to the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That decision will be made within the next few days. It was always understood that this case would end up before the Ninth Circuit, and we have been preparing for this inevitable step for the past year. We have assembled a legal team that includes professors from the Seattle University Law School and the Bingham McCutchen law firm. Their contributions to the appellate process will be invaluable.
Once an appeal is filed, briefing will be submitted by both sides and a hearing will occur. This step will likely take about 18 to 24 months. The legal process is never as quick as we all hope for. The effort to invalidate HB 2281 will continue. Too much is at stake.”
Too much is at stake for many in the legal battle. For years the District used the Mexican American Studies program to funnel desegregation monies out of classrooms in the name of “equity” and desegregation monies to create segregating classes.
Tonight the TUSD Governing Board is scheduled to review the desegregation budget.
In the 2011-2012 school year only $25,484,000 out of $64 million in available desegregation monies made their way into the classrooms. In the 2012-2013 school year, of $64 million in available desegregation monies, only$21,146,500 will make their way into the classrooms.
In one instance, the District used desegregation monies for renovations of a gymnasium at Tucson High School rather than the bond monies set aside for that renovation.
The District has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in both the desegregation case and the Mexican American Studies case defending their right to segregate students based on their ethnicity.
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