Education

by David Safier

A reasonable crowd showed up at the César Chávez March. One the one hand, the crowd could have been larger, but on the other hand, the number of youth there was encouraging and impressive.

The march began at a church near Pueblo High instead of the school itself, which had been the staging grounds in years past, because TUSD said, basically, you can't talk about the Mexican American Studies controversy or badmouth TUSD on the school grounds. Tedski put it best when he noted that people say bad things about the city government all the time at protests held at city parks. That's called free speech. Pueblo High School's walls would not have come tumbling down like Jericho's if a few Hispanic Joshuas blew there horns on the football field. The District would have withstood the blast. But when the first domino fell with the disbanding of Mexican American Studies, the next dominoes — the banning of books, the silencing of teachers' voices in their classrooms and today's prohibition of negative talk about the District — were sure to fall as well. One bad decision begets other bad decisions.

Even more embarassing for the District than a little badmouthing, people might have applauded Sean Arce, and since TUSD is planning to end his contract at the end of the school year, that could have been embarrassing. (More on Arce's removal in another post.)

Here's a pic of the march. You can see a few other pics below the fold.

by David Safier This has been coming for a long time. Imagine Schools, a for profit company with the most charter schools of any EMO (75 last time I counted), is facing all kinds of problems with its six low performing Missouri schools which enroll a total of 3,800 students. Missouri Baptist University, which sponsored … Read more

by David Safier This story, let me begin by saying, comes from Fox News Latino, not from some out-there, lefty radical publication. Here’s the headline: Arizona Official Considers Targeting Mexican American Studies in University It looks like Huppenthal thinks TUSD’s Mexican American Studies program could never have come into existence without the outside agitation of … Read more

by David Safier

You could see this one coming. One weak-willed decision by TUSD to disband the Mexican American Studies program leads to a predictable string of bad decisions. The most visible is the banning of books from use by former MAS teachers. And now this.

This year's César Chávez March willl be held this Saturday, March 31, starting at 9am at St. John's Catholic Church (NW corner of Ajo and S. 12th Ave.). For years, it has begun at Pueblo High. The district's refusal allow the high school to be used as a staging ground is a direct result of the MAS controversy.

OK, let me be more exact. The district didn't refuse to allow the marchers to use Pueblo High. It just:

1. Demanded there be no reference to the elimination of the MAS program.
2. Demanded there be no disparaging comments about the TUSD administration.
3. Demanded the District be allowed to choose the emcee to make sure # 1 and #2 are properly enforced.

It's all perfectly reasonable when you think about it. Why would TUSD allow school grounds to be used to condemn the actions taken by the District? Once the Board and administration started down the slippery slope of ending a program whose purpose is to teach about Mexican American history and literature, they really can't allow an event on school grounds that will talk about the latest event in Mexican American history: TUSD's disbanding of the MAS program.

And it's also perfectly reasonable that the organizers of the march would refuse to accept those conditions.

The result? TUSD has added insult — "No, you can't begin your celebration of César Chávez on school grounds" — to the injury caused to students by taking away classes they hold dear. Add César Chávez to the list of casualties of TUSD's caving to Huppenthal, Horne and their like.

You can see the flier with all the information about the march below the fold.

by David Safier The 12th annual César Chávez March willl be held this Saturday, March 31, starting at 9am at St. John's Catholic Church (NW corner of Ajo and S. 12th Ave.) and ending at Rudy Garcia Park. The march has traditionally begun at Pueblo High School. The reason it's been moved is an interesting … Read more