Horne Horsepuckey

Tucson, Arizona. The Tucson Unified School District has an Ethnic Studies Department (really good 5/25/08 Star Article) that has developed innovative programs designed to help students succeed in their studies and graduate from high school prepared to participate in higher education. The program features: 1) African American studies, 2) Mexican American Studies, 3) Native American Studies, and 4) Pan Asian Studies.

Arizona’s Republican Superintendent of Public Education, Tom Horne, faced with one of the worse state education systems in the nation, considers it a priority to eliminate the Ethnic Studies Department and its four programs, among the most successful in the state. On Thursday, June 12, he took it upon himself to schedule a press conference right outside TUSD headquarters at 10 AM. TUSD Press Release.

Although he has no authority to tell TUSD what to teach, he is calling for the elimination of the department. TUSD Superintendent Roger Pfeiffer has repeatedly invited Horne to visit its classes and examine course material, but not wishing to be deterred by cumbersome facts, Horne prefers to declare the program contains subject matter that is "racist and anti-American" making no efforts to provide evidence supporting such claims.

Dr. Augustine Romero, Director of the Ethnic Studies Department, did release documentation regarding the Raza (Mexican American) program, showing that for each of the last four years students who participated enjoyed significantly higher graduation rates than those who did not. More dramatic, AIMS test performance of participants far exceeded that of non-participants. I will simply mention the reading, writing, and math results for 2006-2007 eleventh grade students at Cholla, Pueblo, Rincon, and Tucson High high schools.

Reading: Raza - 67, Others - 26
Writing: Raza - 71, Others - 16
Mathematics: Raza – 55, Others – 18.

I guess that racist, un-American stuff does a person’s reading, writing, and arithmetic a lot of good. I leave K-12 to individuals I admire like Dr. Vaughn Croft, Dr. Celena-Fagan, Dr. Augustine Romero, and other dedicated professionals including principals and teachers. They are aleady calling him to task regarding his ignorance of the program he condemns.

Update: The Tucson Citizen has a Commentary making similar remarks, i.e., mind your own business and go back to Phoenix.

The toxic paranoia of Arizona's xenophobic Superintendent of Public Education extends to the state legislature, where he supports the inane SB-1108, which would deny state funding to schools whose courses denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization.

Oh, I'm sure we can all agree on what that means.