In attending my legislative district meeting last night, I heard from State Superintendent Tom Horne who told our group of a situation in the Tucson Unified School District of ethnic racist political correctness gone wild. The situation revolves around a teacher who has been continually harassed by the Ethnic Studies Department at Tucson High School (Do our high schools really need “Ethnic Studies Departments?”) I wanted to bring the letter to our reader’s attention in hope to put pressure on TUSD and support for the teacher(s) fighting this kind of workplace harassment and student indoctrination. Here is that email:

Mr. Horne;

My name is (name withheld for privacy concerns). I currently teach World History and American History to sophomores and juniors. I have been teaching at Tucson High for five years, and I am currently in my eighth year in TUSD. This week Tucson High begins the registration process for the 2010/2011 school year, and I have deep and strong concerns about the level of scholarly interpretation of our nation’s heritage in a number of classes that qualify as US History and US Government credit.

I have, during the last two years, been attacked repeatedly here at Tucson High by members of the Ethnic Studies department because I question the substance and veracity of their American History and Social Justice Government classes. I have been called racist by fellow Tucson High teachers, members of the Ethnic Studies department, and students enrolled in the departments’ classes. These charges come simply because I ask the department to provide the primary source material for the perspective they preach. The teachers of these classes not only refuse to stop the name-calling but openly encourage the students’ behavior. The curriculum advanced in these classes openly attacks the founding fathers, the European Judeo-Christian heritage of the founding fathers, as well as attacking the free market enterprises that created our economy and made it strong. These classes preach hatred and emphasize victimization and oppression by Western culture of minority peoples as well as base their lectures and assignments on outright lies concerning historical data in an effort to glorify socialism and demonize democracy and capitalism.

My letter to you is in the form of a question. Why are these classes given equal accreditation with American History and American Government classes? Many students are allowed to take these abominations in lieu of classes that center on essential American principles and history. Students in Ethnic Studies classes can go through high school in TUSD and NEVER learn about the history of the United States or its government in a way that would allow them to acknowledge the achievements and accomplishments in any positive sense. Often these students are completely ignorant of how the government works at all, yet they have a sense of entitlement coupled with offensive self-righteous belligerence. They congregate and protest but cannot articulate the issues at stake for them or for others.

In this era of reduced pay and endangered job security, I appeal to you and ask you to right this injustice. It is my belief all students in Arizona and in the country should be imbued with the concepts and traditions that make our country great.

Mr. Horne, I urge you to issue a directive or have the legislature consider a bill that mandates that all students in Arizona schools should be required to take American History and American Government. If students want to learn about their culture, they can take the extra class as an elective. As it is here at Tucson High, many students have only three to four classes their senior year and less than a full schedule their junior year.

If education is the key principle here, let students take an extra elective and stay in school longer to achieve the “balance” desired by this anti-American department.

Thank you.

Teacher (name withheld for privacy concerns)

During last night’s meeting Superintendent Horne noted that La Raza has been very involved in influencing TUSD policy with Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of liberal Democrat Raul Grijalva, playing a significant role setting policy as a member of the TUSD Governing Board.

In fact, TUSD has been pushing to expand its ethnic studies program. From the August 1st Arizona Daily Star, here is an article detailing that policy change:

TUSD to expand ethnic studies

By Rhonda Bodfield arizona daily star | Posted: Saturday, August 1, 2009 12:00 am | Comments

The Tucson Unified School District Governing Board this week agreed to expand the district’s ethnic-studies offerings, reduce racial disparities in how discipline is meted out and embark on a new marketing campaign in an effort to persuade a federal judge to lift a 31-year-old order requiring racial balance in TUSD schools.

Here’s what you need to know.

The plan hinges largely on an attempt to gently integrate schools by allowing them to develop specialized niches. More choices in instruction would presumably stimulate the voluntary movement of students across the district.

Among other changes called for in the roughly 70-page document are stronger efforts to make the teaching staff more diverse and increased recruitment of minority students for more challenging coursework.

The district’s finance staff had a hard time drawing up estimates but suggested it would cost about $1.5 million to provide seed money for the necessary training and capital improvements to launch the school-choice program. Transportation costs could jump from an anticipated $7.4 million this year to around $9.3 million. A marketing campaign would run roughly $500,000.

Meanwhile, it could cost $1.7 million to hire more teachers for gifted classes, if enrollment does expand. Ten percent increases in the Mexican-American Studies Department would bring it to $814,135, with African-American studies costing $1.2 million.

An internal compliance officer, plus support staff, would cost about $200,000. An external auditor would run $125,000.

Board member Mark Stegeman was the sole holdout on the plan, which passed on a 4-1 vote Thursday debate.

Stegeman said he was concerned about strong language in two parts of the plan dealing with ethnic studies and with discipline.

While he was clear to distance himself from Mexican-American Studies critics who testified at several public hearings on the plan, he said he was concerned about the cost of expanding ethnic studies overall when so many teachers were given pink slips and schools will go without librarians and counselors.

The plan states that the offerings will be “expanded as requested” by students each year — language which, if interpreted literally, could be sweeping. He said he didn’t think his colleagues would be comfortable making such promises in any other subject area.

And the fact that the plan dictates which schools will get new courses flies in the face of a shift toward greater control at each school site, he said.

Board member Adelita Grijalva, meanwhile, said she was concerned that the Mexican-American Studies Department wasn’t expanding enough. She questioned why, given that the district is 60 percent Latino, the department’s budget continues to be smaller than the African-American Studies Department.

Stegeman said his biggest concern was in the section calling for a decrease in student discipline referrals for black and Hispanic students starting with this school year. Stegeman said he was concerned that the language could lead to the unfair application of discipline.

Grijalva countered that there already is unfair application of discipline. Suspensions and expulsions are a contributing factor in juvenile detention, she said, noting minority youth are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system.

Their board counterpart, Bruce Burke, suggested that Stegeman was reading the language too technically, and that the board could apply common sense in fixing any unintended issues that arise.

U.S. District Judge David C. Bury should have the plan by Monday. Pleadings are expected to be filed, particularly since the plan still has more than a dozen points on which the district and the black and Hispanic plaintiffs could not agree.

Bury has not indicated when a final ruling might be expected.

On StarNet: Get more school and education news online at azstarnet.com/education

DID YOU KNOW

TUSD has been under a federal court order to desegregate since 1978, following a class-action lawsuit filed by Latino and black parents.

Officials agreed to bus students across the city, as well as to establish magnet schools to racially integrate the district. By creating magnet schools with specific entrance criteria and prescribed ethnic balances, TUSD sought to entice some of its top students to leave their neighborhoods and further create integrated schools.

U.S. District Judge David C. Bury first indicated in August 2007 that he’d release TUSD from the order — if the district could prove it has a plan to continue giving all students equal opportunities.

Horne’s office is currently working on a response to the teacher’s email request they received yesterday but has also re-issued a letter to the citizens of Tucson that originally went public in 2007 on the issue of ethnic studies in the Tucson Unified School District. Here is a link to Horne’s original letter. We are also aware of current legislation that will attempt to remedy the blatant racial indoctrination taking place in our public schools.

If you are aware of any additional incidents taking place in TUSD or any other public school across the state, we’d like to hear from you. Please leave your comments or contact Sonoran Alliance and the Superintendent Tom Horne’s office.