by David Safier
"This is why I'm running for attorney general, because we need someone to fight against these things."
The story is about two ongoing federal investigations of Arizona's mistreatment of ELL students.
Two federal investigations have concluded that Arizona is violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act by shortchanging thousands of students whose first language is not English.
Unless remedied, the violations could lead to a loss of federal funding for education in Arizona.
One concern is that the test to determine whether students in ELL classes are proficient in English is flawed, sending them out of the classes without sufficient English skills to succeed in standard classrooms.
The other is that the process to determine whether a student should be in the ELL program in the first place is flawed.
According to Horne, the concerns are baseless. Why are they baseless? Horne doesn't say. He does say, however, that he's planning to change some of the procedures based on the "baseless" violations cited by the Feds.
Instead of explaining his position, Horne employed the standard-issue, Republican go-on-the-offensive strategy. He said the federal investigations are payback for Arizona passing SB1070.
Nevermind that the court case saying that Arizona's ELL curriculum is inadequate has been going on for decades. This is all because the Feds hate Arizona.
And that's why he's running for attorney general, Horne says. It's payback time, and as top cop, he's just the man to put the Feds in their place.
"I do think this is a lot of nonsense we're dealing with over 1070" and a report by U.N. human-rights experts condemning the law, Horne said.
"This is why I'm running for attorney general, because we need someone to fight against these things," he said.
Just what we need, an anti-Hispanic AG with a chip on his shoulder. Why not just elect Joe Arpaio and get it over with?
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