As always, the annual Institute for Transformative Education summer seminar, hosted by TUSD's amply funded Mexican/American raza-studies program, was fun. So much racial bitterness to obsess over.This is not a good sign. Here's what it's a sign of:Tim Wise, the ultra-angry Tulane University poli-sci grad who has made a great living finding racism under every doormat, was the featured speaker. Everyone was wowed. [MacEachern: Tucson schools create race-based system of discipline, September 19, 2009]
In a year in which hundreds of district teachers received pink slips, meanwhile, TUSD spent thousands on recruiting teachers from out of state.Tucson has a "heavily minority student population" largely because of Mexican immigration, mostly illegal. (Tucson is only 5% black.) So they are letting white teachers go and replacing them with minorities, partly due to Your Helpful Federal Government:And it hired a coordinator at $80,000 per annum to lead the effort.
The recruiting was prompted by what is fast becoming the consuming passion of the TUSD governing board and its allies - to establish a corps of teachers that precisely mirrors the racial make-up of its heavily minority student population.
This summer, the TUSD board adopted a "Post-Unitary Status Plan" that it expects will help the district escape a decades-old federal desegregation order."Controversial" because it's propagandizing for reconquista, which seems to be proceeding nicely in Arizona. But there's more. School discipline in Tucson has had "disparate impact," presumably because the minority students have been disparately offensive. At least, that's my guess. School administrators seem to think that it must be because of racism:The plan includes increasing the number of minority teachers - per the summer hiring spree, which netted 14 special-education teachers and one math-science teacher.
It also includes a vast expansion of the district's controversial Mexican-American studies program.
But consider one significant part of the plan for "improving" the academic status of TUSD's Black and Hispanic students:Would social justice for all students include actual justice for white kids who are victimized by minorities? No, it wouldn't.(Congratulate MacEachern.)The board is calling for a two-tiered form of student discipline. One for Black and Hispanic students; one for everyone else.
With the goal of creating a "restorative school culture and climate" that conveys a "sense of belonging to all students," the board is insisting that its schools reduce its suspensions and/or expulsions of minority students to the point that the data reflect "no ethnic/racial disparities."
From the section of the 52-page plan titled "Restorative School Culture and Climate," subhead, "Discipline":
"School data that show disparities in suspension/expulsion rates will be examined in detail for root causes. Special attention will be dedicated to data regarding African-American and Hispanic students."
The board approved creating an "Equity Team" that will oversee the plan to ensure "a commitment to social justice for all students."