What if MAS were a charter school and Huppenthal liked its social agenda?

by David Safier

When Huppenthal concluded the MAS program violated state law, he referenced the parts of the audit which criticized some of the texts for inappropriate passages and some of the curriculum for an overly political slant (though the audit also commented, it wasn't sure the objectionable texts or curriculum are currently in use). Huppenthal was also concerned the program hadn't gone through the proper district channels for approval.

Which got me to thinking. Huppenthal is a huge charter supporter. One thing he likes is, charters can be more innovative because they don't have to jump through all those bureaucratic school district hoops. He thinks it's great that they can use their unique curriculum, learning strategies and texts without layers of administration gumming up the works. The proof, he says, should be in results. If the student achievement, graduation rate and college attendance rate are high, the school is doing its job, end of story.

So. Mexican American Studies was given a relatively free hand by TUSD to set up its curriculum and choose its texts. Its primary purpose is to spur its students, predominantly from an ethnic group with historically low achievement, to greater academic involvement and achievement. In a sense, the program is a kind of school-within-a-school operating with fewer bureaucratic restraints than most other TUSD programs. And according to the best stats anyone has been able to produce, there is a significant rise in student achievement compared to similar students in the district — actually, compared even to dissimilar students in the district — the graduation rate is high, and the rate of college attendance of its graduates is higher than one would expect.

In other words, by Huppenthal's standards, the program is a success story, except for one little problem. It teaches history and literature in a way that encourages students to understand problems with racial and ethnic discrimination in this country, making them less accepting of their "place in society" and more active about improving their lot and the lot of their families and community. Huppenthal doesn't like that. So a program which, using Huppenthal's own criteria, is doing a great job, has got to be disbanded because he hates its non-eurocentric approach to subject matter.