PCC open enrollment and TUSD deseg: quick takes

by David Safier

I'm on the road and snagging a few morning moments to post, so I only have time for quick takes on two education topics which deserve far greater attention. I know many of you readers are knowledgeable in these areas — more knowledgeable than I, as a matter of fact. Please feel free to fill in for me and comment. If it makes sense, I'll bring some of your comments up to the main page.

• Pima Community College is talking about eliminating its open enrollment policies. Chancellor Roy Flores says he's doing it for the sake of people who lack the education to succeed in remedial courses. Always be wary when anyone does something that's self serving because he cares so much about the other guy. This idea has everything to do with budget cuts and nothing to do with helping out the students who won't be admitted. The state has already cut GED programs. (Didn't Vic Willams, who has a GED, vote to eliminate GED funding?) Now they want to cut another avenue for people who hope to improve their proficiency in English or math. Possibly the greatest attribute of American education is that it gives people limitless second chances. Flores is part of the move to eliminate that avenue of educational mobility. (Oh, by the way, the Star's editorial agrees.)
• The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says TUSD has to go back on desegregation oversight. The oversight had been removed "despite finding that [TUSD] had failed to act in good-faith compliance with the desegregation decree." The plan was to let TUSD monitor and guide its own compliance, but it hasn't worked out so well. The article doesn't mention the impact of the decision on the whole Mexican American Studies situation, but it could be significant. Ethnic Studies was one way TUSD was complying with deseg orders. To cripple or end the program would be a clear step backwards and could run afoul of the court's decision. It will be very interesting to see how Board Pres Mark Stegeman and others who think MAS bends over too far backwards to address the inequities of our society will address the concern that TUSD hasn't leaned far enough forward to deal with those same inequities in the district. Is MAS's supposed "historical revisionism" overcompensation a reasonable reaction to the district's clear educational undercompensation? Should TUSD's failure to comply with deseg mandates be added to the MAS curriculum? Sounds reasonable to me.