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Tucson's Mexican American studies program violates state law, an Arizona administrative law judge ruled Tuesday, paving the way for the program's possible demise. Judge Lewis D. Kowal affirmed a prior decision by the state's schools chief that the Tucson Unified School District's program violates a new law prohibiting divisive ethnic-studies classes. John Huppenthal, the state superintendent of public instruction, had deemed the program in violation in June. Among other things, the law bans classes primarily designed for a particular ethnic group or that "promote resentment toward a race or class of people." The school district appealed Huppenthal's ruling, and testimony...

Tucson's Mexican American studies program violates state law, an Arizona administrative law judge ruled Tuesday, paving the way for the program's possible demise. Judge Lewis D. Kowal affirmed a prior decision by the state's schools chief that the Tucson Unified School District's program violates a new law prohibiting divisive ethnic-studies classes. John Huppenthal, the state superintendent of public instruction, had deemed the program in violation in June. Among other things, the law bans classes primarily designed for a particular ethnic group or that "promote resentment toward a race or class of people."

PHOENIX (AP) — An administrative law judge ruled Tuesday that a Tucson school district's ethnic studies program violates state law, agreeing with the findings of Arizona's public schools chief. Judge Lewis Kowal's ruling marked a defeat for the Tucson Unified School District, which appealed the findings issued in June by Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal. Kowal's ruling, first reported by The Arizona Daily Star, said the district's Mexican-American Studies program violated state law by having one or more classes designed primarily for one ethnic group, promoting racial resentment and advocating ethnic solidarity instead of treating students as individuals. The...

Imagine you are a visitor from another planet, and you read the words “Ethnic Studies” on the side of a university building. You would consult your translation implant and you would conclude that the two words implied a sort of interdisciplinary approach to the study of ethnic and immigrant communities. Like American Studies, or Russian Studies, a combination of anthropology, sociology, history and other social-sciences good stuff that universities traditionally teach. But if you were that alien visitor from another planet, a tour of a tax-supported university anywhere in California might confuse you. If you entered the building that housed...

The following is a video shot at a Tucson, Arizona school board meeting. The lady within the video is reading excerpts from a book in the Ethnic Studies curriculum. Yes, the following is actually being taught to children. As Moonbat Tracker writes: “These outrageous and toxic books teach kids that the United States is an institutionally racist system filled with “bloodsucking capitalists” and Anglos who “rape Hispanic culture.” Here are a couple of quotes from the books in which the lady recites: “Hard drugs and drug culture is an invention of the gringo because he has no culture.” “We have...

Hungry students and their supporters sit for the seventh day in front of University of California at Berkeley’s California Hall, after a futile meeting with University Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. The students asked Birgeneau yesterday to reinstate fired ethnic-studies staff members. “We're still here, we're still fighting and basically, we're not going anywhere," said a weary-looking, third-year Native American studies major, Zoila Lara-Cea. They are protesting cuts resulting from a comprehensive audit of university operations conducted by the consulting firm Bain and Company. The auditors recommended trimming two-and-a-half staff positions from the Ethnic Studies Department. Even though cuts are distributed university-wide,...

One year after the Arizona legislature voted to dismantle a controversial ethnic studies curriculum widely used in its public schools, the most revolutionary course offerings in it remain in use. “Tucson Unified School District (‘District’) [TUSD] has four courses under the heading of Ethnic Studies,” Tom Horne, the outgoing superintendant of the TUSD reported on December 30, 2010. “Three of the four programs could be found in violation under criterion three, courses designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.” “However, all of the complaints received by the Superintendent of Public Instruction have been as to one of those...

Teachers are suing the state of Arizona to reinstate a controversial ethnic studies curricula that the state assembly cut off funding for earlier this year. “Eliminating a radical La Raza (‘The Race’) studies program in an Arizona public school district is unconstitutional and restricts free speech, according to a group of teachers who are suing the state to reinstate the taxpayer-financed curriculum that one instructor says ‘ignited racial hostility,’” Jim Kouri reported in The Examiner. “The Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American/Raza Studies program was eliminated earlier this year when the state enacted a measure—HB 2281—to stop funding ethnic studies...

In recent weeks, the liberal media has tarred and feathered the good people of Arizona before the eyes of the world. The United Nations has launched an official investigation. Cities like Los Angeles, CA, Richmond, VA and Columbus, OH have announced boycotts of the state. Liberal columnists have wailed about how the new law (which explicitly bans racial profiling) will result in racial profiling. President Obama and House Democrats have ganged up on Arizona with President Calderon of Mexico. A torrent of abuse against Arizona has streamed from the Left. We are told the new law is motivated by "white...

Arizona Ethnic Studies Exposed Cliff Kincaid, May 24, 2010 One of Bill Ayers’ courses at the University of Illinois includes Pedagogy of the Oppressed as required reading. Author Paulo Freire, a Brazilian Marxist, declared: “This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well.” It turns out that the Freire book is required reading in “Raza Studies” or Mexican-American courses in the high schools in Tucson, Arizona, where students have been protesting Arizona’s new immigration law. Other required books are Occupied America by Rodolfo Acuña, a professor emeritus of Chicano...

The divisive racial politics in Arizona are reaching a crescendo of fear, hate and xenophobia. Just days after signing a draconian anti-immigration bill into law that permits racial profiling, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill banning ethnic studies classes in the state’s public schools. The bill outlaws any optional program that teaches the culture and heritage of ethnic groups, including Asian, African-American and Hispanic classes. This overreaching law stems from the worst sort of nativist identity politics. Doug Nick, the federal liaison for the Arizona Dept. of Education appeared on MSNBC’s Chris Matthews’ show Hardball in support of the...

I mean, really! There's no reason at all for Arizona to ban ethnic studies. They're a lovely tradition, full of sugar and spice and everything nice. They teach unity. They teach democracy. They teach equality. Yeah. And Eric Holder knows how to read before he opens his big mouth. Here's what some Arizona "ethnic studies" students have been learning ...

(CNN) -- Fresh on the heels of a new immigration law that has led to calls to boycott her state, Arizona's governor has signed a bill banning ethnic studies classes that "promote resentment" of other racial groups. Gov. Jan Brewer approved the measure without public statement Tuesday, according to state legislative records. The new law forbids elementary or secondary schools to teach classes that are "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" and advocate "the overthrow of the United States government" or "resentment toward a race or class of people." The bill was pushed by state school Superintendent...

Hey, I am seriously considering moving to Arizona. Not only does it have better weather and lower taxes than my current residence it has brave legislators. Fresh from passing stricter laws on illegal (not undocumented) immigrants, Arizona's legislature "passed a bill Thursday that would ban ethnic studies programs in the state that critics say currently advocate separatism and racial preferences. (snip) The new bill would make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of...

Still Stuck on Stupid Malcolm A. Kline, March 3, 2010 With literacy on all levels (i.e., without adjectives or with—scientific, historical, civic, etc.) on the wane, public officials everywhere scratch their heads over what to do about it while concocting schemes such as the one devised by the school board in the city Tony Bennett sings about. “San Francisco high school students, just months out of middle school, can start earning San Francisco State college credit this fall through a ninth-grade ethnic studies course,” Jill Tucker reported in the San Francisco Chronicle on March 1, 2010. “Currently, five ethnic studies...

San Francisco high school students, just months out of middle school, can start earning San Francisco State college credit this fall through a ninth-grade ethnic studies course. Currently, five ethnic studies courses are offered at three high schools, but they offer only high school credits. The school board voted to expand the ethnic studies program last week, increasing the number of courses to at least 10 sections at five high schools. To help with the added costs associated with expanding the program, San Francisco State offered to help train district teachers and assist with developing curriculum. At a school board...

Ward Churchill in Denial by: Bethany Stotts, July 13, 2009 A jury may have decided in April that University of Colorado at Boulder officials violated former professor Ward Churchill’s first amendment rights when firing him, but a Denver District Court Judge has ruled that Churchill will neither receive his job back nor receive front pay for his termination. “Professor Churchill’s own statements during the trial established that he has not seriously pursued any efforts to gain comparable employment, but has instead chosen to give lectures and other presentations as a means of supplementing his income,” wrote Judge Larry J. Nye...

Ronald Takaki, who made it his life’s work to rewrite American history to include Asian-Americans and other ethnic groups excluded from traditional accounts and who helped start the first doctoral program in ethnic studies in the United States, died Tuesday in his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 70. The cause was suicide, said his son Troy. He battled multiple sclerosis for years. “He struggled, and then he gave up,” his son said. Mr. Takaki, whose Japanese grandfather immigrated to Hawaii in the 19th century and worked on a sugarcane plantation, became a leading scholar of ethnicity and multiculturalism in...

David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin profile political indoctrination in academic departments.One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America’s Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy, by David Horowitz and Jacob Laksin (Crown Forum, 336 pp., $26.95) To some extent, the recent jury verdict holding that the University of Colorado had wrongly fired Ward Churchill was correct: political pressures did inspire the investigation leading to his termination for academic misconduct. It doesn’t follow, though, that Churchill was fired for his political views, which notoriously included comparing 9/11 victims to “Little Eichmanns.” Plagiarism and falsification of evidence aren’t covered under any definition...

University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill was fired by the Board of Regents in July. But that didn't stop Churchill from still teaching at CU this week. According to the Boulder Daily Camera, a group of student supporters rented out a classroom at CU's Eaton Humanities Building and invited Churchill to teach. The topic? "ReVisioning American History: Colonization, Genocide and Formation of the U.S. Settler State." And it appears this isn't a one-time-only event.