Is the MAS electives resolution off the table?

by David Safier

If you are to believe Josh Brodesky, TUSD Board President Mark Stegeman is bowing to the inevitable and considering taking his electives resolution off the table.

"I don't want it to die," Stegeman said of his proposal. But his sense is it will. The staff and board majority, even if they are "sympathetic with the virtues of it, don't really want to go there right now."

If so, good for him for seeing the situation for what it is. When I've talked with Stegeman in the past, he always seemed convinced that his electives idea was nothing more than a small tweak in the MAS program. When I told him there was a huge divide in our thinking on the subject, he disagreed, saying he thought we were closer than I imagined. Events have proved him wrong. The divide was huge.

In the Brodesky column, Stegeman made it clear he didn't realize how strong the community push back would be.

"Did I anticipate how fierce it was? Did I anticipate how personal it would become? Did I anticipate how distorted the argument would become?" he said. "No, I didn't anticipate the magnitude of what's happened."

For the record, Stegeman isn't a racist. And he isn't a henchman of the right wing that wants to bring down the program. Stegeman sees flaws in the MAS program, and he decided to address them sooner rather than later in hopes that Huppenthal would call off the dogs if the program were modified. I think he's wrong on both counts — making MAS courses into electives would mean a slow death for the program, and Huppenthal isn't likely to be swayed in his vendetta against Ethnic Studies and public education in general (with the exception of charters, of course) by halfway measures of the TUSD Board — but those who attribute Stegeman's stance to his being a racist and a lacky are simply wrong.

Whether or not the elective proposal is gone, the wheel is very much in spin. However, the recent MAS hubbub has led to a more complete and complex public discussion of the Ethnic Studies program than we had before — which is a good thing — and more important, it has galvanized the Hispanic community. If the students' fight for their education has empowered this low voting community into registering and voting in greater numbers, the young people have done a great service to their community and to the state.