Arizona’s famous SB 1070 has overshadowed another law affecting, primarily, Mexican-American students in Arizona. House Bill 2281 bans Ethnic Studies in public schools and targets the Tucson School District’s Raza Studies Program. The two bills are an attempt to split the Latino community by forcing immigrants to fight against SB 1070 and Mexican Americans against HB 2281.
Tom Horne, the Superintendent of Schools, recently elected as that State’s Attorney General, heads the assault on Ethnic Studies. He claims ethnic solidarity is racist and unconstitutional, and with the HB 2281 he plans to withhold funding to any school district that teaches it. “Arizona’s HB 2281 outlaws ethnic studies but allows the study of the holocaust, black and Native American Studies. It singles out Mexicans and other Latinos claims Dr. Acuña.”
What are ethnic studies? There are two important aspects that distinguish ethnic studies from other areas of study – their origin and their purpose.
Most social studies like sociology or anthropology have grown out of other areas of studies like history. For example, Chicana/o Studies came about as a result of the political struggles of the 1960s and 1970s.
Dr. Acuña states “Chicano communities literally muscled their way onto college campus across the Southwest and parts of the Midwest and Northwest.”
He explains that a handful of scholars began to document the conditions in Latino communities, particularly high school graduation rates. “The data encouraged a cry for educational curricular reform that addressed the pedagogical needs of Mexican American students.”
Their primary focus was figuring out how to best meet the needs of the Mexican American children, given the social and economic injustices they face.
A few teacher-scholars like Dr. Acuña developed a “teaching methodology using the principles of Paulo Freire, John Dewey and Edwin Fenton — rejecting the model that students should be warehoused.”
Chicano Studies as Dr. Acuña describes it is “the foundation used to motivate and teach Latina/o students. The content is an important motivational tool to inspire students to learn, to correct the negative self-images that have come about through the process of colonialism.”
In Tucson these methods have resulted in higher graduation rates and more students going to college. Tucson’s Unified School District’s Ethnic Studies and Mexican American Studies programs have reversed these trends. The dropout rate in this program is 2.5 percent. Students in the program significantly outperform their peers on the state’s standardized AIMS tests and 66 percent of these students go on to college.”
So why ban a program that is working? The attacks on Ethnic Studies seem to ask: Why educate Mexicans?
When you look at the budgets around the country they seem to be asking: Why educate anyone? In Wisconsin: Why have teachers? In California: Why have public schools? Ethnic studies are important because they evolved out political struggle, and it will take political struggle to insist on quality public education that serves the needs of all students.
To learn more and support the fight for ethnic studies visit – www.saveethnicstudies. org.
