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

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.

Comments

[OhgReaTone]

04:52 PM on 05/29/2010

The same people who advocate the profiling of humans are all pissed off when we profile their Pit Bull ......

http://thefiresidepost.com/2010/05/28/please-dont-profile-my-pit-bull/

[JessCostello]

10:05 PM on 06/10/2010

Yeah but Redneck Gazette is all fine and dandy right?

[OhgReaTone]

09:56 AM on 06/11/2010

It is too bad that you chose not to read the Redneck Gazette. .........

http://thefiresidepost.com/2010/02/05/redneck-ingenuity-or-schizophrenic-engineering/

[demograndma]

09:19 AM on 05/28/2010

First they got rid of the handicapped, who bled the state coffers dry, then they got rid of the Gypsys - who wre known thieves - and no one stopped them. Then came the Jews, who had to die.It took a World to stop them.
It's obvious these bullys in the repulsican party have the same mindset as Hitler, but are we going to wait for the rest of the world to stop their hate? Can we not kick the DNP in the rear to get a "rock the vote" or some type of protest going? What has happened to US? Are all the good guys addicted to vids and don't care what happens in the real world?

[JessCostello]

10:05 PM on 06/10/2010

What about all the Democrats who support it? And is Mexico a real friend of the United States?

[peacegurl48]

04:43 PM on 05/27/2010

I went to college in the early 70s and "ethnic studies" was always very much mixed; we wanted to learn each other's cultures because when you do that it is much more difficult to hate and fear.Ethnic studies were created so we people of color could be taught that we too made important contributions to the coutnry. Ignorance serves the right wing well as does turning education and truth into some sort of propaganda machine. Knowledge and empathy increase our humanity and that is antithetical to the right wing agenda. Sad.

[JessCostello]

10:07 PM on 06/10/2010

Ethnic Studies programs should include something for non-Hispanic White students so they can understand the value of it. The stuff currently masquerading as Whiteness studies preaches self-hate for Whites.

[F451]

02:42 PM on 05/23/2010

It sounds reasonable; if a teacher cannot speak English well, assign the person to teach other courses.

On the subject of ethnic studies..it has been my experience that activists tend to teach these so called ethnic studies; Chicago's inner city schools have a problem with race centered social studies where is routine to tech pupils that white America is as fault for much of the country's maladies.

[pamihami]

05:57 PM on 05/18/2010

What is the big deal here? I am a college educated white female. I was born, raised and lived the majority of my life in central Georgia. My southern dialect is so thick that when i leave the south people actually have a hard time understanding me. Even though i speak English would you like for me to teach your children English? I doubt it. Before college, i considered entering into the field of Speech Language Therapy only to be told unless i lost my accent that my chances of ever working outside of the south would be slim to none. It did not offend me at all. What's the problem with expecting teachers to pronounce the English language correctly so your children can learn it correctly?

[spuggy]

09:19 AM on 05/27/2010

Here's the problem, some say tomahto, some say tomayto, erb or herb, wadder or water, vytamin or vitamin, bayzil or basil,rowt or route, etc so when you say prounounce the English language correctly how is that going to work. Will they provide a pronunciation list and who determines it? Will they dismiss a British, Australian or Scottish teacher because they have an accent and pronounce words differently?
Also one has to wonder why any school would hire a teacher who can't be understood in the first place?

[Aleah Weltha]

02:49 PM on 05/16/2010

Um, Arizona, your stupid is showing. As a Missouri native I know how embarrassing that can be.

[supertim]

01:03 PM on 05/15/2010

it just keeps getting more and more like Germany under you know who, dont wanna be accused of violating Godwin's Law, but these recent laws remind me of the Nuremberg Laws circa 1935

AZ GOING AFTER CHILDREN: Another AZ Bill To Require Schools To Report Undocumented Children/Students
If passed, SB 1097 would compel teachers and administrators to determine the legal status of students and their families, almost certainly discouraging enrollment and parental participation at school. The bill’s sponsor is state Senator Russell Pearce, a longtime leader of Arizona’s anti-immigration right wing and the legislator who crafted the recent immigration enforcement law.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-14/arizonas-next-target/?cid=hp:vertical:r

[Max is Back]

10:39 AM on 05/17/2010

Great post

The white supremacist Arizona GOP is trully shameless in their bigotry. They even want to hunt down children...

Fanned

[JessCostello]

10:10 PM on 06/10/2010

Isn't the law also meant to ban La Raza racial supremacists, Black Supremacists, Asian supremacists etc?

So why aren't you calling out the Chicano Supremacists in those schools?

[ugly american]

02:57 PM on 05/17/2010

OK... I thought the Right Wing blew things out of proportion. The Left Wing does an even grander job of it!
Read beyond the Daily Beast and one columist's opinion and see the bill.
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/1r/bills/sb1097p.pdf is the offensive piece.
What it says is that the schools are supposed to count how many students they have who are not legal residents of the United States. ie: find out how many Mexican citizens we are trying to educate here and figure out how much it is costing us. Then turn the info over to the Secretary of State to tell the taxpayers what having another countries people here is costing them.
Not a thing about police or law enforcement or ICE...nada.
It is still not about race. It is about having unauthorized citizens of another nation here. Since they are fighting tooth and nail not to go home, what problem do you have with us knowing what it will cost us for them to stay? That is not Nazi, That is budgeting for the unexpected.

[CCee]

09:08 AM on 05/15/2010

Hmmmmm ... Some people just need a reason to kill, This law - What were they thinking.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/05/14/20100514phoenix-immigration-shooting-family-blames-law.html

Sorry for the repeated posts Some things need to be said... Not all people are whack Jobs Like this clown - but there are enough of them out there to make SB1070 a hideous public safety issue.

[susankhbelen]

07:19 AM on 05/15/2010

1. ALL textbooks teaching American History are European Ethnic centered. BANNED
2. EVERYONE has an accent. FIRE THEM ALL

These people are not smart enough to run schools.

[Max is Back]

10:45 AM on 05/17/2010

It is sad to see that the white supremacist Arizona Republican Party has decided that they need to come up with a collection of laws intended to attack the hispanic population in order to pander to their base.

It is even more disheartening to see that the GOP put its hispanic collaborators on spanish language TV to try and justify the list of bigoted GOP anti-latino legislation with flimsy arguments and deflections claiming that the Arizona Law is Obama's fault and that the GOP had to do these kinds of things bacause Obama was somehow not doing his job. It is very sad that the GOP talking heads are not challenged on their lies with the fact that crime is the lowest it has been in Arizona since the 1970's and that immigration through Arizona is likewise the lowest it has been in some time...

[GinnyW]

02:24 AM on 05/15/2010

"No ethnic studies"??? So American history can't be taught? Or isn't there an American culture and ethnic history?? I think they may have a typo, and they actually meant "no ethic studies", as they can be truly troublesome.

[EllenEvertHopman]

11:00 AM on 05/14/2010

It seems the AZ school board is trying to whitewash the injustices that
really did occur and trying to keep their children's minds "lilly-white" as if nothing unpleasant ever happened, as if white people never actually oppressed those of color.
How are children supposed to learn if their history is kept from them in a
whitewash?

[Max is Back]

10:47 AM on 05/17/2010

It seems they have an acte interest in targeting anything latino lately for some reason...

I think they are trying to justify voter suppression in November or a purge of latino voters from the rolls. It may be the GOP's only hope of stealing the elections and staying in power...

[cmwilliams]

07:51 AM on 05/14/2010

So should we ban teachers of foreign languages who do not possess the correct accent?

[RobinD]

05:17 PM on 05/20/2010

Irony is those who cry about speaking english only can't even speak the language.

[GinnyW]

05:35 AM on 05/14/2010

Those militia groups donning guns and shouting about wanting to "Take Back Our Country" should have been quiet around teenagers of Hispanic descent if they didn't want to be taken seriously. Let's see: As ye sow, so shall thee reap??

[citizen1787]

06:56 PM on 05/14/2010

I don't understand? A few, % of US pop., racists mouthing off and so what is going to happen?

[GinnyW]

01:51 AM on 05/15/2010

Like the Black Panthers of the 60's, confrontational racists created reactionaries among the Hispanic Americans. "Armed and dangerous", "take back our country", and like bellicose TV bombardment quite naturally created a demonstration in fatiques, or revolutionary garb by the Hispanics being pushed into the corner by Sheriff Joe and his boys, and then the AZ legislature escalates by another racist law. It seems so simple to stop the violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan; bring our kids home to work like the Army Corps of Engineers to restore our slums, MS River levees, and national parks; and create enough work visas for Mexican labor designated for the service sector to care for our aging population and become citizens; teach English through intensive studies, not so-called "bilingual" education, which serves to hamper the young Americans who speak Spanish from actually learning English; promote education -- not just in history of ethnic heritage, but math and science, so we can catch up with the Chinese; and stop the hate. Maybe the death of the Republican Party will be a start, and the people of this nation (all of them) can forgive each other for the crimes against those who are different and work together.

[GinnyW]

05:28 AM on 05/14/2010

Have any of the indigenous tribes to Arizona come on board to protest this absurd law? I'd love to see some Navajo or Apache comments. The Hopi, Papago and Pima students I know are apolitical. Since 99% of Mexicans are mestizos, I'd also like to know what Americans of Azteca, Chihuahua, and Mayan ancestry think of this affront to education about our diverse culture. Would these local pols like to go back to the days of the Indian Schools, where kids as young as six were taken from their families, brought to Phoenix for education as maids and menial workers and only English was permitted to be spoken? If they dare to speak their native tongue, they should be severely beaten?? Luckily, several spoke their own languages and could be recruited as Code Talkers in WW II.

[GinnyW]

05:15 AM on 05/14/2010

As an English major, I was disgusted with the English teachers with whom I taught in 5 different states who couldn't speak with proper grammar and syntax (Damn! There's a tax on everything!). Particularly grating was the deep South accent discussing Whitman and Keats. BUT, living in AZ as I do, you'all know thaats naught the actsant thay's tauken 'bout knaw. Since they don't TEACH English, nor even require 4 years of it for HS, how in the world is this law goan to be enfarced?

[cmwilliams]

07:53 AM on 05/14/2010

There's a difference between using correct grammar and having an accent. I agree about the grammatical ignorance within classrooms but there is no need to discriminate based on one's accent.

[GinnyW]

03:33 PM on 05/14/2010

Most of the my post was an attempt to satirize the effect and extension of the horrific laws passed by xenophobic politicians. I teach American to refugees, and have for 45 years. Many Asian students pass extensive exams in English and get to the US only to discover they can't understand American, which is a different language evolved from English. I love puns and always start the lesson with the joke of the day; I tell my students that they know they've learned English when they laugh at a pun. The word "goan" above is an example of accepted American that is incomprehensible to many non-Americans. I don't believe in INcorrect grammar, since my studies of entomology indicate that languages are constantly evolving; read any Chaucer lately? Listen to the "English" spoken at those very meetings which wish to segregate the diverse and your sense of humor ought to be aroused by the perversity and absurdity of their "Do as I say and not as I said. Welcome to HP, CM, but oh, pun my word(!), we who gather here love to pun-ish people with puns and satire.

[GinnyW]

03:39 PM on 05/14/2010

Okay, I used the word "entomology" instead of "etymology" as a really sick example. Congratulations to those who caught it.