The Latest News on our Continuing Coverage: A “Final Blow” to the Law that Banned the Arizona Ethnic Studies Curriculum

For several years, we have been covering the ban of the Mexican American curriculum in Tucson, Arizona both on our blog and in our journal.  In addition to four articles, readers can also view our videos of interviews with authors as well as our public forums.  For our most recent analysis of this continuing court decision, see the post below by authors Leslie Locke andAnn Blankenship who provided our readers with an in-depth analysis of the decision.

Today, we have learned the U.S. District Court judge has now permanently blocked the Arizona ethnic studies ban that he had found to be racially motivated and a violation of students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment Rights.

 Read the latest on this decision:

“Judge blocks Arizona ethnic studiesban he found was racist,” Washington Post, December 28, 2017

An Analysis of the Court Decision that Found the Banning of the Mexican American Curriculum Unconstitutional

Editor: We invited authors, Leslie Locke and Ann Blankenship, to provide our readers with an analysis of the recent court decision finding the banning of the Mexican American curriculum in Tucson, Arizona to be unconstitutional.   Their earlier publication in Volume 10 of our journal was titled, “Keeping the Flames at Bay:The Interplay between Federal Oversight and State Politics in Tucson’s MexicanAmerican Studies Program.”  Their article was part of a series of articles that this journal has published on this issue. Others included:“The Hypocrisy of Racism: Arizona's Movement towards State-Sanctioned Apartheid” by Augustine F. Romero, “Dangerous Minds In Tucson: The Banning of Mexican American Studies and Critical Thinking In Arizona” by Curtis Acosta, and “Precious Knowledge: An Interview with Film Director, Ari Palos, on April 15, 2013” by Celina Meza.  We are pleased to provide our readers with the latest update on this vital issue, and thank Leslie and Ann for their in-depth analysis of this decade-long litigation .

Good News about Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American Studies Program from the United States District Court District of Arizona!

 

By Leslie A. Locke and Ann E. Blankenship

 

 

  

It’s been a long road. But, the court finally, after years of political struggle and legal debate, supported what MAS students, parents, and teachers have always known--that the attempts at squashing the program was backed by racism and white fragility (DiAngelo, 2011) for political gain.  The court said as much in their August 2017 decision, where they noted the deconstruction of MAS was “motivated by a desire to advance a political agenda by capitalizing on race-based fears” (p. 42), and had little to zero basis in fact.  

 

The Mexican American studies program (MAS) in TUSD had been instituted as a response to a federal desegregation plan in effect in TUSD since 1978.  The MAS program, like its counterparts such as African American Studies and Asian American Studies, was an educational program that while open to any student, was centered on the Mexican American experience and history in order to forge a connection between students and the curriculum.  The MAS program was successful as evidenced by student achievement and outcomes.

 

However, a series of unfortunate events, based on illogical, as well as thin and one-sided evidence, started their course in 2006.  We won’t go into great detail here in retelling these events as much as been written about them (e.g., Acosta, 2013a/2013b; Cabrera et al., 2014; Cammarota, 2009/2012/2014; Palos et al., 2011; Romero, 2010).  In short, conservative politicians in Arizona (ironically the State Superintendents of Instruction--those elected to best serve all students in the state) dug their heels and set in with a laser focus on eliminating the MAS program by making fantastical connections between it and communism, ethnic chauvinism, rudeness, hate speech, and anti-Americanism, among other things.  

 

Here is a summary of some of the legal history that guides us to the most recent decision.

 

In 2010, the Arizona legislature passed HB 2281 (codified into statute as Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) §§ 15-111 and 15-112) prohibiting a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that “(1) Promote the overthrow of the Unites States Government, (2) Promote resentment toward a race or class of people, (3) Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, or (4) Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” ARS § 15-112(a). In his last days in office as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne, concluded that the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Mexican-American Studies program (MAS) violated ARS § 15-112 and ordered TUSD to either eliminate the program or lose 10% of its state funding. Shortly thereafter, John Huppenthal replaced Horne as State Superintendent.  Huppenthal, claiming that he wanted all the facts before enforcing Horne’s decision, hired Cambium Learning, Inc. to conduct an investigation of MAS.  Despite Cambium’s conclusion that MAS did not violate ARS § 15-112, Huppenthal conducted an independent investigation, determining that MAS did in fact violate the law.  Facing a 10% reduction in state funding, which is essentially all of the district’s liquidity, TUSD eliminated MAS.

 

In October 2010, teachers and students of TUSD filed suit against Huppenthal as Superintendent of Public Instruction claiming that ARS § 15-112 as enacted and enforced violated their constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.  The case was tried and appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who ruled that ARS § 15-112 was not unconstitutional on its face but left the door open for subsequent challenges, noting “Even if § 15-112 is not facially discriminatory, however, the statute and/or its subsequent enforcement against the MAS program would still be unconstitutional if its enactment or the manner in which it was enforces were motivated by a discriminatory purpose” (Arce v. Douglas, 793 F.3d 968, 977 (9^th Cir. 2015)).

 

That brings us to the federal court’s most recent review of the Arizona legislation and subsequent elimination of the TUSD MAS program.  On August 22, 2017, the United States District Court (District of Arizona) issued its decision in González v. Douglas.  The action, brought by students and their parents against Diane Douglas, the current Superintendent for Public Instruction for the State of Arizona, alleged that Arizona’s enactment and enforcement of Arizona Revised Statute §§ 15-111 and 15-112, eliminating the Tucson Unified School District Mexican-American Studies program (MAS), violated students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment Rights.  After an exhaustive recounting of the facts of the case, the District Court broke its conclusion of law down by counts, first focusing on the Fourteenth Amendment claim then the First Amendment Claim.

 

            In considering the Fourteenth Amendment claims, that the enactment and enforcement of ARS § 15-112 was motivated by discriminatory purpose, the court noted that the plaintiff’s had to prove that discrimination was one but not the only purpose of enactment and enforcement.  To determine whether an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose was a motivating factor in the enactment and enforcement of the legislation, the court looked at direct and circumstantial evidence of intent, including: (1) the impact of the official action and whether it bears more heavily on one race than another; (2) the historical background of the decision; (3) the specific sequence of events leadings to the challenged action; (4) the defendant’s departures from normal procedures or substantive conclusions; and (5) the relevant legislative or administrative history (González v. Douglas, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141671, *39).

 

            Relying largely on public comments made by Horne, blog comments Huppenthal made under a pseudonym, and comments from other Arizona legislators, the court concluded that Arizona’s enactment and enforcement of ARS § 15-112 were motivated by discriminatory intent.  The court really focused on the intent of Horne and Huppenthal as key players in the efforts to get ARS § 15-112 enacted and enforced.  The court’s review of Huppenthal’s public and private statements regarding MAS left little doubt of his intent to discriminate.  The court included dozens of Huppenthal’s quotes in opinion.  Some of the most egregious include statements Huppenthal made on his blog under a pseudonym, which the court thought were most revealing of his true state of mind:

 

No Spanish radio stations, no Spanish billboards, no Spanish TV stations, no Spanish newspapers.  This is America, speak English.

I don’t mind them selling Mexican food as long as the menus are mostly in English.

MAS = KKK in a different color.

The rejection of American values and embracement of the values of Mexico in La Raza classrooms is the rejection of success and embracement of failure.

The Mexican-American Studies classes use the same technique that Hitler used in his rise to power.  In Hitler’s case it was the Sudetenland.  In Mexican-American Studies case, it’s Aztlán (internal citations omitted). (González, p. 26)

 

            In addition to the intent of Huppenthal et al., the court concluded that MAS’s enforcement bore more heavily on Latinx students who were already the subject of historic discrimination in Tucson (as evidenced by its desegregation court order still in effect today), that the sequence of events were out of the ordinary, and that there was an illogical departure from normal procedures.  Of particular interest here was Huppenthal’s conclusion that MAS violated ARS § 15-112 despite the Cambium report to the contrary, despite his having no first hand information about the actual curriculum taught in MAS classes.  Overall, the court found sufficient evidence of racial animus against Latinx student in the enactment and enforcement of ARS § 15-112 by Horne, Huppenthal, and others, noting:

 

The sequence of events included no attempt to conduct a good faith, objective evaluation of the MAS program’s teachings and efficacy, other than the Cambium audit, which is rejected out of hand.  Instead, in enacting the statute, the legislature, Horne, and Huppenthal relied on and presented biased accounts of the MAS program that were based on limited evidence and laced with terms fairly understood to refer negatively to perceived traits of Mexican Americans. (González, p. 28).

 

Given the total weight of the evidence presented, the court further concluded that Horne and Huppenthal did not testify credibly regarding their own motivations at enactment and enforcement of ARS § 15-112.

 

            Relying on the same body of evidence, the court ruled that the enactment and enforcement of ARS § 15-112 also constituted a violation of the students’ First Amendment right to receive information because the elimination of MAS was not reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns, but instead racial animus.  The court concluded that Horne and Huppenthal’s were motivated by political gain, capitalizing on voter’s race-based fears, rather than pedagogical concern.

 

            The court will determine an appropriate remedy after parties have an opportunity to file briefs and replies, hopefully by the end of the calendar year.

 

            One of the many unsettling aspects of this strange, and sad but true story, is that it was sparked and supported by those who were elected to serve in the best interests of all students in TUSD.  Horne, Huppenthal, and their political allies have shown a complete lack of interest in the welfare of students in TUSD.  Moreover, they outrightly targeted Latinx students.  Importantly, while the original MAS program has been successfully suppressed and marginalized since 2010, thousands of students have been denied the opportunity to take advantage of a highly successful educational program tailored to the Mexican American experience and history.  They were denied all the benefits those classes were known to provide--including increased achievement and positive impacts on graduation. Horne and Huppenthal failed to make any efforts to understand the curriculum (the court confirmed that they indeed never visited a MAS class, reviewed the program curriculum, and rather cherry picked texts and presented them out of context).  These politicians’ willingness to deny students, not just those who would have been in MAS program, but all the students of TUSD, access to proven successful educational programming and opportunities to achieve, should not be disregarded or forgotten.  They openly and unabashedly misused their political power.  And they so hypocritically called MAS students “rude.”

 

Congratulations to the plaintiffs and to all who fought this fight and endured this long and often absurd road.  You have been heard, finally.  We look forward to reading about how the excellent MAS teachers will use this immediate experience to study and explore institutional racism, systemic bias, the political process, white supremacy, and white fragility.  While it was an unfortunate series of events, we image they will make great curriculum exhibits.

 

 

References

Acosta, C. (2013a). Dangerous minds in Tucson: The banning of Mexican American Studies and critical thinking in Arizona. Journal of Educational Controversy, 8(1), 1-18.  Retrieved from

http://cedar.wwu.edu/jec/vol8/iss1/9/

Acosta, C. (2013b, October 17). Interview with Curtis Acosta. [Video File]. Bellingham, WA: Western Washington University. Retrieved from  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBhpQ7eqA_Y

Blankenship, A.E. & Locke, L.A. (2015).  Culturally conscious curriculum: The fight between state and federal policies in Tucson.  Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 18(4), 338-349.

Cabrera, N. L., Milem, J. F., Jaquette, O., & Marx, R. W. (2014). Missing the (student achievement) forest for all the (political) trees: Empiricism and the Mexican American Studies

controversy in Tucson. American Educational Research Journal, 51, 1084-1118.

Cammarota, J. (2009). The generational battle for curriculum: Figuring race and culture on the border. Transforming Anthropology, 17, 117-130.

Cammarota, J. (2012). TUSD MAS ban: Educational sovereignty in the wake of state repression. Journal of Reading Education, 37(2), 5-6.

Cammarota, J. (2014). Challenging colorblindness in Arizona: Latina/o students’ counter-narratives of race and racism. Multicultural Perspectives, 16, 79-85.

DiAngelo, R. (2011). White fragility. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3), 54-70.

Locke, L. & Blankenship, A. (2016).  Keeping the flames at bay: The interplay between federal oversight and state politics in Tucson’s Mexican American Studies program.  Journal of Educational Controversy, 10(1).  Retrieved from http://cedar.wwu.edu/jec/vol10/iss1/2  

Palos, A.L., McGinnis, E., Fifer, S.J., Bricca, J., & Amor, N. (Producers). (2011). Precious knowledge [DVD]. Dos Vatos Productions.

Romero, A.F. (2010). At war with the state in order to save the lives of our children: The battle to save ethnic studies in Arizona. [Special issue: Defending ethnic studies in Arizona].  The Black Scholar, 40(4), 7-15.

READERS CAN READ THE ENTIRE DECISION HERE.

 

Federal Court Rules that Arizona’s Banning of the Mexican American Studies Program was Discriminatory and Motivated by Racial Animas

A U.S. District Court has ruled that the banning of the Mexican American Curriculum in Tucson, Arizona was discriminatory and motivated by racial animus.

READERS CAN READ THE ENTIRE DECISION HERE.

We have been following the events following the banning of the Mexican American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona in our journal, on our blog and in several panels and forums that were videotaped and made available to our readers.  See “The Hypocrisy of Racism: Arizona's Movement towards State-SanctionedApartheid” by Augustine F. Romero, “Dangerous Minds In Tucson: The Banning of Mexican American Studies andCritical Thinking In Arizona” by Curtis Acosta, “Precious Knowledge: An Interview with Film Director, Ari Palos, on April15, 2013” by Celina Meza, and “Keeping the Flames at Bay: The Interplay between Federal Oversight andState Politics in Tucson’s Mexican American Studies Program,” by Leslie A. Locke and Ann E. Blankenship.

We will provide an extensive analysis of the court decision in a future post on this blog. Check back.

How do you react to this AP headline: “Ex-school official: Radicals taught Mexican-American program”

The article, “Ex-school official: Radicals taught Mexican-American program,” written by Astrid Galvan of the Associated Press appeared in a number of newspapers today including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Of course, the headline is true in so far as the idea that radicals taught the Mexican-American program in the schools of Tucson was claimed by an ex-school official, but might be misleading if you don’t question the truth of the assertion by the former school official.  The Journal of Educational Controversy has published a number of articles on the banning of the Mexican American curriculum in Tucson, Arizona.  After reading the articles in the Washington Post or the New York Times, take a look at one of our journal’s articles on what actually occurred inside one of those classrooms.  You can find the article, “Dangerous Minds inTucson: The Banning of Mexican American Studies and Critical Thinking in Arizona,” by Curtis Acosta, a former teacher in the school district, in our 2014 Volume 8 issue.  The theme for that issue was, “WhoDefines the Public in Public Education.”

Trial Date Set: Latest Action on the Banning of Mexican American Studies in Tucson, Arizona

Editor: We have been following the events following the banning of the Mexican American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona in our journal, on our blog and in several panels and forums that were videotaped and made available to our readers.  See “The Hypocrisy of Racism: Arizona's Movement towards State-Sanctioned Apartheid” by Augustine F. Romero, “DangerousMinds In Tucson: The Banning of Mexican American Studies and Critical ThinkingIn Arizona” by Curtis Acosta, “Precious Knowledge: An Interview with Film Director,Ari Palos, on April 15, 2013” by Celina Meza, and “Keeping the Flames at Bay:The Interplay between Federal Oversight and State Politics in Tucson’s MexicanAmerican Studies Program,” by Leslie A. Locke and Ann E. Blankenship.

A trial date has now been set to challenge the constitutionality of these actions.  Below is an e-mail that we received that will bring our readers up to date on events.  

FROM RECENT E-MAIL:

April 13, 2017

Mexican American Studies Trial

Tucson, Arizona

The legal challenge to the constitutionality of the State of Arizona's banning of Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District has been scheduled for trial in Tucson, Arizona. Trial will be held on June 26-30, 2017 and continue on July 17-21, 2017.

The MAS case contends that the actions of the State of Arizona violated the Equal Protection and First Amendment rights of the school districts Mexican American students. This includes the enactment of the statute HB 2281 and the subsequent enforcement of the law compelling TUSD to eliminate the MAS department, all classes, curriculum and course material.

The anti-MAS law was passed and signed into law shortly after Arizona's infamous SB1070 anti-immigrant law was passed. Both are products of the anti-Mexican sentiments that have been rampant throughout the state. The MAS case was filed October 18, 2010. In the initial proceeding the district court found one of the four provisions in the statute unconstitutional. After a successful appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the case was remanded for trial on the Equal Protection and First Amendment claims.

Trial will be held in Tucson before the Hon. Judge Tashima and is scheduled to last two weeks. It is open to the public and supporters of Mexican American Studies, Ethnic and Gender studies are invited to attend.

For more information about the trial and attending please contact tucsonmastrial@gmail.com.

MAS Trial -Tucson  

Anita Fernández-Information Coordinator

New Issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy Now Online and Upcoming Seminar

The new issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy, on the theme "Who Defines the Public in Public Education?," can be found here. The idea for this issue's theme was sparked by the ruthless and seemingly politically motivated ban on Mexican American Studies in the Tucson, Arizona school district, after years of the MAS curriculum being taught in Tucson without controversy. All of the authors included in this issue speak to the questions, both pedagogical and philosophical, arising in the wake of the Mexican American Studies ban in Tucson. The article in the new issue by former Tucson MAS teacher Curtis Acosta addresses the root of this controversy and Mr. Acosta will be joining the Western Washington University community in a discussion of his article, via webcam, on May 14th, 4-6pm. The upcoming seminar is sponsored by Western's Center for Education, Equity and Diversity, as well as the Journal of Educational Controversy and the Woodring College of Education. (Watch an interview with Curtis Acosta conducted last fall by JEC editor Lorraine Kasprisin and associate editor John Richardson here.)

The article titles, authors, and affiliations of the authors for this volume of the Journal of Educational Controversy are:

"Ask Not Only Who Defines the Curriculum: Rather Ask Too What the Curriculum Aim Should Be"

Walter Feinberg

Charles Hardie Professor, Emeritus

The University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana

"Religious Citizens in a Secular Public: Separate, Equal?"

John F. Covaleskie

University of Oklahoma

"Reading NCLB as a Form of Structural Violence"

Kerry Burch

Northern Illinois University

"Critical Study of the Concept of 'Public Identity' as Manifested in Postmodernist Versions of Critical Pedagogy"

Boaz Tsabar

Hebrew University, Israel

"The Public and Its Problem: Dewey, Habermas, and Levinas"

Guoping Zhao

Oklahoma State University

"Attack of the Cyborgs: 'Economic Imperialism' and the Human Deficit in Educational Policy-Making and Research"

Scott Ellison

University of Tennessee

"Middle School Students, Slam Poetry and the Notion of Citizenship"

Anthony M. Pellegrino, George Mason University

Kristien Zenkov, George Mason Univeristy

Gerardo Aponte-Martinez, Michigan State University

"Dangerous Minds in Tucson: The Banning of Mexican American Studies and Critical Thinking in Arizona"

Curtis Acosta

Former Teacher of Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District

Editorial: "Who Defines the Public in Pubic Education"

Lorraine Kasprisin

Editor of the Journal of Educational Controversy

Western Washington University

"Interview with Ari Palos, Film Director of Precious Knowledge" 

Celina Meza

JEC Editorial Staff

Western Washington University

Curtis Acosta Videos Now Online on Journal of Educational Controversy Website

When Curtis Acosta, the teacher whose Mexican American curriculum was banned in Arizona, came to visit us at Western Washington University on October 17th, we videotaped both an interview in our studio and a very dynamic presentation at a special forum. Readers can now view both videos.

The Interview is on our journal's link, "Authors Talk." To go directly to the interview on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebzgIIdw3Dk


The Presentation is on our journal's link, "Public Forums." To go directly to the presentation on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4DqoyF1Lwc

Curtis' article, "Dangerous Minds in Tucson: The Banning of Mexican American Studies and Critical Thinking in Arizona," will appear in our upcoming issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy on the theme, "Who Defines the Public in Public Education."

Curtis Acosta interviews with Nathaniel Barr, JEC Editorial Assistant

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Curtis Acosta, the Mexican-American studies teacher whose curriculum was banned by the State of Arizona in 2010 amidst wide public controversy. Curtis had just given a presentation on the criminalization of Latin@ youth to a packed auditorium of students, professors and other community members and activists after a full day on the campus of Western Washington University. This presentation, which emphasized steadfastness and hope for social justice in the face of adversity, was sponsored by the Woodring College of Education, the Center for Education, Equity and Diversity, and the Journal of Educational Controversy. Curtis' forthcoming article for the JEC's upcoming issue on the theme, "Who Defines the Public in Public Education?," responds to the rhetoric used by those who outlawed the Mexican-American studies program in Tucson.--Nat Barr, Editorial Assistant, Journal of Educational Controversy

Nathaniel Barr interviews Curtis Acosta

Nat: Has becoming an important public figure impacted your work?

Curtis Acosta: [Laughing] I don't know if I agree with that--being an "important public figure."

Nat: Well, you are.

Curtis Acosta: Has it impacted my work? The struggle, right? The actual civil rights struggle that we went through at home. Yeah, it has totally impacted my work. Losing the classes obviously impacted my work because I had to figure out what I was going to do next. Some of my colleagues are still in TUSD, even though they're banned from doing what we were able to do in the curriculum, but for me, I knew I wasn't the same value to the students in TUSD that I was for years and I knew that that meant it was time for Xipe Totec, or transformation, for me--so where can I be of the most value?

I'm also finishing my PhD, so that was the original kind of thing, and I couldn't stop the activist part or the wanting to spread this part. So I got really busy trying to visit different spots and seeing if they have some like-mindedness trying to do that work and maybe they find some value in what were doing. I'm on planes a lot and that's different than most teachers, because you're usually in the classroom, you don't have that... well, I don't know if I would call that a privilege, because traveling ain't that sexy.

Nat: Well, you have tremendous energy. I mean, seeing you speak tonight...

Curtis Acosta: Good, because you never know how its going to come off, you know? Especially when you're by yourself doing it, rehearsing in your little cocina, your little kitchen.

But, you know, I was born to teach--I just have a new student, a new student body. And then I'm going to be back home next semester teaching the stories and the stuff that I love again. So, it will balance out, as we build the new institution, it's going to balance out. We just have to find a new path and a new way.

Nat: Do you have any hope that a Mexican-American studies program will be reestablished in the school district?

Curtis Acosta: They have to actually. We asked them two years ago in January 2011, we're like listen, 'you must use the desegregation case'--because our district has been under a thirty-year desegregation order--so, we're like, 'listen, you have to have our classes, and we already have data, we have all this stuff, don't let the rhetoric of these hatemongers,' really. And, you know, it's hard to tell if they're hatemongers or opportunists, because they could've just been tapping into these anti-Latin@, anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant sentiments that engulfed our state for their own political gain.

           

But, we say, 'you have to have courage, you have a federal court order that trumps state,' because a federal court order trumps state law. And, first we asked, then we begged,  and then we threatened them, to join our effort and, well, they didn't like the last one, but they should've just done it on their own--the school board. Unfortunately, at the time, it was 3-2 against that, and our superintendent--his name was John Pedicone--he was awful when it came to... he had no sense of justice, no sense of courage, no sense. Just political expediency. He was a very arrogant man who thought he could solve it with his charm, because that was what had always worked in the past, and, boy, he learned a lot. He learned about his limitations. And, unfortunately, we were disappeared, but six months later they were forced to bring something back. They were very clear--it was the same superintendent--that it won't be that. And, by 'that,' I mean, us. We were out. Behind closed doors, they were wooing us though. In public, they would say, 'no, it's not going to be Mexican-American studies," but, behind, in private emails, in TUSD, they'd be like, 'hey, can you help us out, we gotta develop a curriculum?' We're like, 'are you kidding me? After what you've done to us, now you're gonna ask?'

So that was troublesome, but since then they have started, they created, they have classes again that are called 'Culturally-Relevant Curriculum', 'CRC' classes that are Latin@ literature and Mexican-American studies that are brand new. And you saw in the talk today, that the actual history classes didn't have any actual Latin@ authors in the curriculum until the media blew it up, and said, 'what are you doing, are you kidding me?' So, we'll see how it grows from there.

Nat: Ok. I'm kinda wavering now between these questions, but I'm gonna go with the one that seems obvious to me.

Curtis Acosta: Yeah.

Nat: Well, I just wanted to say that I'm big fan of Foucault, actually, or, at least, I'm really interested in him, and I'm curious that you're citing him in your forthcoming piece for the journal...

Curtis Acosta:

And I have some great knowledge to drop in this PowerPoint, but it's on my notes. And, as you saw, I had a bunch of technical difficulties. So, no, I was going to bring... because, you know, Foucault talks a lot about confinement, punishment. In fact, I was re-reading it on the plane as I came here to find the quotes I really wanted to use to tie it together, because I wanted to use something different than the stuff I was using in the journal. The talk today was a little bit different than what I wrote about in the piece, but Foucault remains a steadfast voice that I like to go to once and awhile.

Nat: Are there former students that you keep in contact with?

Curtis Acosta: Absolutely, yeah, quite a bit.

Nat: How are they doing now?

Curtis Acosta: It's harder to see them now, because now I'm no longer where all the magic happened. So, I've had to find out kind of a new way to get in touch with them and to stay connected. But, yeah, you know, they've got my phone number and I have theirs. It's just a text message or a e-mail away. The problem is I'm just constantly bouncing between, you know, a plane and then when I come home, it's like Patricia and the boys are like 'what do you need?', you know, and I gotta know that. So once, I get into a groove I need to reconnect with them, but through the struggle, yeah, absolutely. And they're out doing all sorts of different things, you know: some are activists in the community, highly civically engaged; some are just making it work, they're just hanging in there.

A lot of them are parents now and they're horrified at what's going on, because a lot of them matriculated before [the program was shut down]. We survived for six years against all odds, because of the will of our students, the will of our community. Then when the hammer finally fell, they were horrified, because now they're parents and they're like, 'what happened? This was a space that transformed my life!' Because no matter what they're doing, whether they're getting degrees to hang up on the wall, they all have one thing in common: they can read the world. They are critically engaged in the way the world works. You can have like, socio-political discourse and conversation with my former students that you can just jump right into it, doesn't matter what walk of life they're in right now. I mean, not often do we go there, because the first thing I want to know is how they're doing, who they're loving, how their babies are doing if that's the case, and then how their parents are and all that kind of stuff, because we had a real relationship, and always will.

Nat: Last question, if you could give one piece of advice to activists, what would it be?

Curtis Acosta: Listen. You know, I'm asked to talk a lot, but today, here at Western... man, I was asked some tough questions and I got to listen to the context behind those questions and we engaged in some conversations. People were real brave in asking those questions, because it came from a real personal space sometimes, or a real passionate space sometimes. And I want to honor that--I don't want to just dismiss it.

So, that's what I've learned. I've learned that as a teacher that the most powerful thing I can do is listen, because  if I can really listen, then I can craft a real educational experience for that student that is dynamic and engaging and something that's very real to them. That may just change the way they look at the future, so that they can find their own path, whether through scholarship or through activism, or through both together, or through just practicing In Lak Esh. I shouldn't just say In Lak Esh, I mean, that's the most important thing, that there's good human beings that were cultivated and that they made me a better human being, they cultivated that in me. It was reflexive, symbiotic... that's the number one thing, to remember why you're doing the work. That you're not doing the work because your issue matters more than other issues. There's so many issues out there and so many experts out there and I honor them all, and you can honor them best by listening to what they know, where they're from and then start a real conversation that's based in love.

Lorraine Kasprisin and Curtis Acosta

Curtis Acosta to Speak at Western Washington University October 17th

Woodring College of Education, The Journal of Educational Controversy, and the Center for Education, Equality and Diversity are pleased to announce:

Pedagogies of Resiliency and Hope:
Innovation and Empowerment in Response to the Criminalization of Latin@ Youth

Presentation by Curtis Acosta
Tucson MAS Teacher featured in Precious Knowledge
Thursday, October 17th
AW 204
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Since the turn of the century, national and state legislation have increased the criminalization of Latin@ youth. Whether it be in the guise of immigration policy, English Only initiatives, or the case of banning Mexican American Studies in Arizona, Latin@s are facing unprecedented scrutiny and surveillance that violate basic human and civil rights. This talk will focus upon the bleak context for Latin@s and other marginalized communities in the United States in the realms of education and the prison industrial complex, while also focusing upon programs and pedagogies that inspire hope, empathy, and love.


About Curtis Acosta:

Curtis Acosta has been a high school teacher for nearly 20 years in Tucson, where he developed and taught Chican@/Latin@ Literature classes for the renowned Mexican American Studies program in the Tucson Unified School District . The program was outlawed by the state of Arizona sparking a nationwide debate over what population is represented and whose voice is heard in the nation’s public schools.  Curtis is an award-winning educator that has been featured in the documentary Precious Knowledge, and in profiles by CNN, PBS, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He was recently named one of the top 10 Latinos to Watch in the United States by The Huffington Post. Curtis has published articles in The English Journal, Voices in Urban Education, and the book Educational Courage: Resisting the Ambush of Public Education.

Curtis is the founder of the Acosta Latino Learning Partnership; an educational consultation firm committed to help educators create dynamic learning environments, pedagogies and curricula that will inspire every student to thrive. He is also a founding member of the newly established Xican@ Institute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO), which is a sponsored program through Prescott College. XITO strives to support the Xican@/Latin@ community through teacher preparation, social justice pedagogy, and community organizing.  XITO's practices are steeped in Xican@ indigenous epistemology which drives the intentions, structures, and practices of the institute.

Where is Curtis Acosta Now?

Editor:  We have been following the events on the banning of the Mexican-American Studies Program in Tucson, Arizona both in this blog as well as in our journal.  One of the key players is Curtis Acosta, a teacher of the curriculum when it flourished in the school district and a participant in the federal court case that may determine its future.   Curtis will be a keynote speaker at the Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference on October 19, 2013 in Seattle.  He will be visiting Western Washington University at that time to give a talk and to appear on our new, upcoming television program (more about that later).  We will have a special section on the events in the Tucson Unified School District in our next issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy on the topic: "Who Defines the Public in Public Education?"  We will include an article by Curtis along with an interview with the director of Precious Knowledge, a film in which Curtis' teaching is featured.  The director, Ari Palos, has also given us permission to insert a section of the film in the journal.  Below are the latest happenings in Curtis' life that he shared on the Education Liberation Listserv.

From Curtis Acosto to his Friends and Supporters 

As many of you may have heard, I have decided to take a leave of absence from Tucson Unified School District. It was with a heavy heart that I made this decision but in order to maintain the integrity of my work with youth it could no longer be in a district that banned my curriculum, pedagogy, and boxed our books. For more details, I invite you to read my open letter on the Rethinking Schools blog.

http://rethinkingschoolsblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/1333/

For the foreseeable future, I will continue teaching Chican@ Literature to high school students for college credit, as well as completing my dissertation at the University of Arizona.

I have also started my own education consultation firm, the Acosta Latino Learning Partnership, where I hope my years in the classroom can be of service to teachers, schools, districts, and educational organizations throughout the country.

http://latinolearning.com
 
In the meantime, I cannot wait to see everyone in Chicago at Free Minds, Free People July 11-14. I am excited for Radical PD this year since we have an amazing collection of teachers and youth lined up, as well as our first Ethnic Studies National Assembly on Sunday the 14th.

http://www.fmfp.org/program/radical-professional-development/

The fire for educational justice burns as bright as ever in Tucson thanks to the amazing national support we received from you all, and the unbreakable resolve of this community. Mil gracias!

In Lak Ech,

Curtis Acosta
Watch a press conference with Curtis Acosta on You Tube.

Federal Court Decision on Tucson, Arizona’s Ban of Mexican-American Studies to be Appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

Here is the latest word on the recent court decision on the banning of the Tucson, Arizona Mexican-American program. The fight will continue. Supporters of the program have announced that they will appeal the decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

While the case continues on in the courts, interest in multicultural literature is reported to be soaring. Censorship appears to have drawn students across the nation to ethnic studies. Even the young students who watched the books being packed in boxes and taken away in their Tucson, Arizona high school classrooms have been given the opportunity to be taught outside the confines of the school district. Their teacher, Curtis Acosta, teaches a Chicano literature class at John Valenzuela Youth Center in South Tucson on Sundays. Moreover, Prescott College is now offering the students college credit for their study, ironically, the same study that was deemed too dangerous by the State of Arizona.

This raises an interesting and disturbing question. It seems that in a class-based society, only those privileged to continue on to college will have an opportunity to critically explore these deeper questions and assumptions underlying the power relations in our society. But all citizens in a democracy need this type of inquiry if they are to engage in the body politic. Given that many students will end their studies at the high school door, what are the implications for the kind of society we are forming?

We will be exploring the politics of education in the journal’s next issue on “Who Defines the Public in Public Education?”

The Latest on the Federal Court Decision on the Banning of the Mexican-American Studies Program in Tucson, Arizona

Editor:  Readers will remember our article titled, "The Hypocrisy of Racism: Arizona's Movement towards State-Sanctioned Apartheid," by Augustine F. Romero, from our Fall 2011/Winter 2012 issue of the journal. Since its publication, we have tried to keep readers updated on the events in Arizona that resulted in the banning of the Mexican-American Studies Program in the schools of Tucson, Arizona.  A decision from the federal courts has just come down on March 8th.  Here is a link to the decision, Acosta v. Huppenthal .  Essentially, the law, HB 2281, was upheld except for one provision that barred courses "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group."    The court upheld other provisions of the law that bar courses promoting the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote racial or class resentment, and those that advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals. 

 We provide both a press release from the Save Ethnic Studies website about a possible appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and a statement from the Office of the Attorney General.

Statement from Save Ethnic Studies Website:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, March 11, 2013

Contact:

Law Offices of Richard M. Martinez

(520) 327-47-97

SES Statement on Tashima Ruling: The Path Forward

Late in the afternoon of March 8, 2013 Judge Tashima issued the long anticipated ruling concerning the pending motions for summary judgment. The motions were initially submitted in 2011 and argued in March of 2012.

The plaintiffs' motion sought to invalidate HB 2281 (A.R.S. § 15-111 and 112) as unconstitutional because it is impermissibly vague and overbroad, precluding speech and infringing students' "right to receive" under the First Amendment. Although Judge Tashima recognized that the students' First Amendment rights in the classroom were at stake, and found one provision of the statute unconstitutional, A.R.S. § 15-112(a)(3) - "classes designed primarily for pupils of a particular group ethnic group", the decision left intact the remainder of the law that was used to prohibit the teaching of Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District.

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. This is especially true when important constitutional rights are at stake.

The effort to invalidate HB 2281 will continue. Too much is at stake. The right of every student to learn and teacher to teach the history, literature and culture of Latinos in Arizona is currently prohibited. Mexican American Studies proved to be a valuable educational program that instilled students with a positive academic identity. Much better academic skills, grades, graduation rates along with increased matriculation to college consistently occurred in every year the program was offered.

The mandate to successfully educate every student irrespective color, gender, culture or economic status is in crisis. As a nation we have failed miserably to reach this goal. We can and must do better. Ethnic studies provide a critical curricular option that must be available to every school district to consider, implement and maintain.

HB 2281 is the product of fear and a profound misunderstanding of the role of culture, language and history. These are areas of learning that do not divide us as a nation but provide a vehicle to promote understanding, respect and success. We cannot allow this fear to spread to other jurisdictions and eliminate important programs that already exist or the development of new programs.

The American dream has always included the universal hope that our children do better than we did. Irrespective of color, gender, culture or language every student must have the right to know who she is and how she fits into our complex and challenging society.

The path to obtain and maintain our civil liberties is continuous. In this lucha we all move forward. Your support is vital. Stand with us united in our common effort to be make our nation "a more perfect union".

The educators, students and community of Save Ethnic Studies.


Statement from the Office of the Attorney General:

Attorney General Tom Horne Wins Federal District Court Case Against Tucson Ethnic Studies Program


Phoenix (Monday, March 11) – 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 issued Friday. The law was held to be constitutional, with one minor exception, Section (A)(3). The case was personally argued by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne in Federal District Court in Tucson.

In a statement 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.”

Enforcement of the law resulted in cancellation of Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American Studies Program after an independent Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that the program presented material in a “biased, political, and emotionally charged manner.” The ALJ also stated: “Teaching in such a manner promotes social or political activism against the white people, promotes racial resentment, and advocates ethnic solidarity instead of treating peoples as individuals.”

The State law prohibits courses if they violate any one of four prohibitions, including “promote resentment toward a race or a class of people”, “are designed primarily for peoples of a particular ethnic group”, or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of peoples as individuals.” The Court found only “designed primarily for peoples of a particular ethnic group” to be unconstitutionally vague, and upheld the other standards under which Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies Program was eliminated.

The Statute was challenged on numerous grounds, including violation of free speech, and unconstitutional vagueness – they were denied. The Court held that the State’s legitimate concern here was to reduce racism, as set forth in the declaration of policy in the statute that states: “The legislature finds and declares that public school pupils should be taught to treat and value each other as individuals and not to be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people.” The Court found that the prohibitions in the statute are reasonably related to the goal of reducing racism at the schools.

In a related action, another Federal Law Judge had issued a ruling in the Tucson desegregation case calling for the development of culturally relevant courses, an Order that has been appealed by Attorney General Horne. However, that Order also stated: “The State is free to enforce its laws as it did in 2011 when it took action against TUSD for Mexican-American Studies courses, if it believes any culturally relevant courses developed and implemented in TUSD violate state law.”

Office of the Arizona Attorney General

RENOWNED CHICANA AUTHOR ANA CASTILLO TO READ FROM HER BANNED BOOKS IN TUCSON ON MAY 4TH

Editor: More news coming out of Tucson, Arizona.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RENOWNED CHICANA AUTHOR ANA CASTILLO TO READ FROM HER BANNED BOOKS IN TUCSON ON MAY 4TH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 19, 2012


Contact:
Brianda Bustamante
(520) 260-2048 cell
Curtis Acosta
(520) 891-7327


Tucson, Ariz. - Renowned Chicana poet, essayist, novelist and author of So Far From God, Ana Castillo will be giving a reading from books banned by TUSD to Mexican American Studies students and the general public on Friday May 4th at 6:30pm at the John Valenzuela Youth Center in South Tucson. A question and answer segment will follow the reading.


Ms. Castillo offered to visit the actual classrooms in TUSD and meet the students of the dismantled MAS classes. Unfortunately, TUSD administration continued their discriminatory behavior toward MAS students by banning the media from recording Ms. Castillo's visit, although media had been allowed access for similar author visits earlier in the year.


Ms. Castillo who was saddened by TUSD's response said today that, "they can keep me out of the schools but as a U.S. law abiding citizen they cannot keep me out of Tucson." In reaction, a community venue became the obvious choice for the Tucson community for all to attend. Before the actual reading Ms. Castillo will meet separately with students who were enrolled in MAS classes at 5:30pm, and discuss her writing which was a pivotal part of the program.

What: Ana Castillo Public Reading


When: Friday, May 4th, 6:30 pm


Where: John Valenzuela Youth Center, 1550 S 6th Avenue, South Tucson, AZ 85713~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~