Arizona Ethnic Studies Classes Banned, Teachers With Accents Can No Longer Teach English

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Discrimineren onder het mom van anti-discriminatie maatregelen.

Groet / Cees

Arizona Ethnic Studies Classes Banned, Teachers With Accents Can No
Longer Teach English
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/arizona-ethnic-studies-cl_n_558731.html

Arizona's new immigration law is just about crime, its supporters say,
but given that the state's new education policy equates ethnic studies
programs with high treason, they may not be using the commonly accepted
definition of "crime."

Under the ban, sent to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer by the state legislature
Thursday, schools will lose state funding if they offer 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 a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of
the treatment of pupils as individuals."

As ThinkProgress notes, the Tucson Unified School District's popular
Mexican-American studies department is the target here. The state
superintendent charges that the program exhibits "ethnic chauvinism."

Meanwhile, in a move that was more covert until the Wall Street Journal
uncovered it, the Arizona Department of Education has told schools that
teachers with "heavy" or "ungrammatical" accents are no longer allowed
to teach English classes.

As outlined by the Journal, Arizona's recent pattern of discriminatory
education policies is ironic -- and is likely a function of No Child
Left Behind funding requirements -- given that the state spent a decade
recruiting teachers for whom English was a second language.

     In the 1990s, Arizona hired hundreds of teachers whose first
language was Spanish as part of a broad bilingual-education program.
Many were recruited from Latin America.

     Then in 2000, voters passed a ballot measure stipulating that
instruction be offered only in English. Bilingual teachers who had been
instructing in Spanish switched to English.

Teachers who don't meet the new fluency standards have the option of
taking classes to improve their English, the Journal reports, but if
they fail to reach the state's targets would be fired or reassigned.

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