Some supporters of Arizona's HB 1108 have been using the word "sedition." Of course they didn't see themselves as committing an act of sedition - that would be placed on the immigrants and their teachers who encourage diversity, which is a bad word these days.
[The Arizona]" legislature is considering a bill that would ban public-school classes that "overtly encourage dissent." As a throw-in, the bill would also ban university organizations that appeal to memberships "based in whole or in part on race-based criteria."
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Editorial, 04/20: Politics in classroom
The Arizona Republic
The board of the Tucson Unified School District - on a bender of indulging its taste for political activism - has invited the wrath of the state Legislature. One does reap what one sows, it seems.
Led by Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, the Legislature is considering a bill that would ban public-school classes that "overtly encourage dissent." As a throw-in, the bill would also ban university organizations that appeal to memberships "based in whole or in part on race-based criteria."
House Bill 1108 is a response to a controversy earlier this year about elements of the Tucson district's ethnic-studies program that celebrates Marxist revolutionaries and characterizes the U.S. as an oppressive nation.
It is, on the whole, a lousy piece of legislation that intrudes, foremost, on the principle of local control of education. Yes, a much-abused notion in these days of the federal No Child Left Behind act. But it remains one that must be defended. Even on behalf of revolution-spouting activist "educators."
If Tucson voters are happy with embittering some of their best students with race-based grievance-mongering and with raising up Che Guevara and Fidel Castro as role models, then it is their choice. It is an expression of their values.
The district's $2.6 million program, especially its "raza studies" component, oozes anti-U.S. bitterness, celebrates Marxist politics and raises up perceived ethnic slights as intentional acts of oppression.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has done a terrific job of bringing the program's materials to light, including texts such as Occupied America. And numerous TUSD teachers and staff have stepped forward, telling of the bullying and intimidation with which the program's staff appear quite comfortable.
According to the program's director, Augustine Romero, the instructors are all acknowledged "progressives" who perceive virtually all interpretations of American history other than their own to be the handiwork of "ultra-conservatives."
"The concern (of critics) is that it's not their political orientation being taught," Romero said. "To sit here and say teachers don't walk into a classroom with a political orientation, well, that's the furthest thing from the truth."
Romero and his instructors ascribe, religiously, to practices espoused by Marxist- education theorist Paolo Friere, author of The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which decries traditional education methods as a dehumanizing conspiracy of evil capitalists bent on subjugating the masses.
But responding to such political cant with a state law prohibiting curricula that "overtly encourage dissent" - as HB 1108 would - simply layers politics upon politics. It is likely to smother all history and social-studies instruction with subjective mandates.
TUSD parents certainly can - and should - question their school board about the program. And they may have questions about the constitutionality of such an overtly political program.
The Arizona Constitution, in Article 11, Section 7, forbids a "political test or qualification" for hiring instructors as well as for enrolling students. Romero's raza-studies program - taught by "progressive" teachers - might have some issues with that provision.
Tucson's ethnic-studies programs clearly turn the well-intended social balms of multiculturalism and diversity on their heads. But laws passed down Tucson's way from Phoenix are not about to set them right.
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