Arizona Legislature Bans Ethnic Studies-Wants to Remove Teachers from Classes Who have Accents

Just so folks know this new law to ban ethnic studies was first proposed by the same white supremacist/ Neo-nazi Russell Pearse who co-wrote the immigration bill. It was SB 1108. If folks have not realized it, what we see is all out war, supported by out and out ignorance. The banning of ethnic studies in Arizona is no different than the Texas text book saga where they are removing ethnic heroes like Thurgood Marshall and Cesar Chavez. Some people feel like some of what is going on in Arizona won't impact them, when in fact it will sooner or later... Right now they are firing teachers in Texas who teach outside the lessons and try to slip in the extra history. In Arizona they are removing teachers who speak with an accent. This is happening in 2010. Hope folks stay abreast and keep pushing back...

-Davey D-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100430/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1885

Just a week after signing into law the country's toughest immigration bill into law,Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will soon decide whether to endorse another piece of legislation that outlaws ethnic studies programs in public schools.

The bill forbids Arizona schools from using any curriculum that promotes "the overthrow of the United States government" or "resentment toward a race or class of people." It also disallows any curriculum that's "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" or that seeks to "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

Arizona's Superintendent for Public Instruction Tom Horne has said he's backing the measure because ethnic studies programs encourage "ethnic chauvinism"; he's also suggested that such programs could breed secessionist sentiment among Hispanic students.

Republican state Sen. Jack Harper also voted for the bill, saying that certain Hispanic-themed ethnic studies programs are "trying to say that somebody who came to this country illegally is somehow oppressed. That's crazy stuff."

But the legislation's detractors say that, if the bill is signed into law, the state, not the targeted programs, would be promoting a politicized curriculum. Democratic state Sen. Linda Lopez says the bill would target a Mexican-American studies program used in her home district of Tucson. She offered an amendment—which the legislature approved— mandating that Arizona schools adopt curricula that include discussions of genocidal such as the Holocaust., so that such material would not be considered as promoting "ethnic resentment."

In another controversial shift in state education policy, the Wall Street Journal has reported that the Arizona Department of Education has begun telling principals to remove teachers who speak English with an accent from classes with students who are still learning English. Some school officials are complaining that the move will remove experienced teachers from classrooms that need them. Margaret Dugan, the state's deputy superintendent of schools, told the Journal the request is "politicizing the educational environment."

"Teachers should speak good grammar because kids pick up what they hear," Johanna Haver, an adviser to Arizona educators, told the Journal. "Where you draw the line is debatable."

The Education Department permits teachers who don't meet fluency standards to take classes to improve.

—Liz Goodwin is a national affairs writer for Yahoo! News