Ever since the Mexican American Studies program at Tucson public schools were deemed illegal by the state of Arizona in 2010, regional debate over ethnically relevant courses for the area's racially diverse students has been heated.
But the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Governing Board voted 3-2 on July 9 to
side-step the state order and approve a curriculum for "culturally relevant" core credit courses taught from an African American and Mexican American perspective.
In fact, the new classes are required as part of the district's "Unitary Status Plan," a court-ordered plan written by a desegregation expert as a requirement as part of the district's decades-old federal desegregation order to ensure all students are provided equal access to quality educational opportunities and bring the district's schools into racial balance. In May 2013, the Governing Board approved an $83.3 million budget to carry out the desegregation plan, which also directs the district to increase racial and ethnic diversity of administrators, promote integration in magnet schools and programs, and reduce student discipline disparities.
While Arizona has become infamous for an immigration law that has little tolerance for people of color, the state also enacted a law that bans ethnic-studies classes in all Arizona public schools. Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law on May 11, 2010, just hours after the United Nations Human Rights Commission formally opposed the bill on the basis that any ethnic group has the inherent right to learn their own history. Specifically, the law prohibits schools from teaching classes that: promote "resentment" toward a race or class of people; are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group; promote the overthrow of the government; or, "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." It was the culmination of a campaign started in 2006 by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne when he was Superintendent of Public Education to eliminate the Mexican-American Studies specifically targeting the Tucson school district's nationally recognized ethnic studies program, which had served 1,500 students and was an interdisciplinary curriculum that focused on contributions made by Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans in literature, history, and science.
While a federal judge upheld most provisions of the Arizona state law in March 2013, the court did rule that the section of the law prohibiting courses adapted for students of a particular ethnicity was unconstitutional.
Tucson Unified School District will now offer the culturally relevant literature classes in the fall to juniors and seniors in pilot high schools. The literature courses will cover race and privilege in America, the birth of the civil rights movement, pursuit of the American dream, contemporary issues in the African American and Mexican American cultures, and racial identity. There will also be a focus on how literature serves as a vehicle for confronting issues of race and racism, as well as social and political struggles of African Americans and Mexican Americans.
Culturally relevant history and government courses from a Mexican American and African American perspective are also under development.