While fumbling Tucson school officials await the fate of the outlawed Mexican American Studies in a federal court desegregation order, the prestigious Prescott College announced it will grant college-level credit for a banned Chicano/a Literature course.

The next three days in Tucson could set the stage for one of the most important education revivals in the nation.

Corporate textbooks and children's biographies of Columbus are filled with misinformation. After all, Columbus did not merely "discover," he took over.

While the Daily Show brilliantly reminded millions of viewers last night of the disgraceful racist elements behind the attack on Tucson's acclaimed and now outlawed Mexican American Studies program, educators across the nation recalled a teaching moment.

While schools across the country celebrate United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez's March 31st birthday, Tucson students reassigned from the recently outlawed Mexican American Studies program will also be forced to deliberately ignore Arizona's most famous native son.

If the truth about who we are and what we've done makes people angry, do we really soothe that anger by covering up the truth?

As the fate of Tucson's MAS program lies within the slowly grinding gears of the court system, the protest-performance of the librotraficantes -- their call for direct action -- deserves the support of all who believe in justice.

Throughout the history of the U.S., in their role as social institutions, schools have reproduced the cultural norms, often with the attendant range of social inequities and dominant group privileges found within the larger society.

The questions beg: How much lower and blatantly racist will Tucson school officials go? Will Tucson community leaders, like Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, stand by and watch the reckless measures of "demagogic extremists"?

A remarkably diverse array of librarians, educators, writers, civil rights activists and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is mounting a series of national actions to call attention to educational and civil right violations and to support local Tucson efforts.