Ethnic Studies fight heats up again

by David Safier

We haven't heard much about the whole Ethnic Studies fight lately. Here's the latest, from a Save Ethnic Studies media release:

Late yesterday [Monday, November 14] the plaintiffs in the Acosta . et. al. v. Huppenthal  case filed their motion for preliminary injunction seeking a court order halting all further enforcement action under HB 2281 against the Tucson Unified School District. If granted, Superintendent Huppenthal would be prohibited from imposing any sanction on the Tucson Unified School District.

Huppenthal has been working to get rid of Ethnic Studies, first by paying for an outside, independent MAS audit to look into the program (which found in favor of MAS, so Huppenthal decided to ignore the information he paid for), then by holding a group of hearings which, as expected, had one set of witnesses saying MAS is the spawn of Satan and another set praising the program for presenting a valid and important side of American life and history, and for raising students' achievement.

The injunction is part of Save Ethnic Studies' strategy to invalidate Huppenthal's foregone conclusion by taking him to court. It's plausible the SES folks could win this.

SIDE NOTE: The state's Public Hispanic Basher Number One has been recalled from office by a previously unknown challenger — by a 12 point margin, a substantial victory. Bashers Two and Three — Huppenthal and Horne — are still playing the same old sorry song, because they think it's a political winner (I think Pearce mostly believes in his rantings. Hupp may partly believes what he says. As for Horne, I'm convinced he doesn't believe a word of what he says on this issue). If things are turning a bit in Arizona on the topic of immigration and Hispanics in general, and there are indications they might be, people could get tired of this strategy, to the state's benefit and the Bashers' detriment.