It’s all ethnic studies
Leonard Pitts Jr.’s column “My history is part of your history” [Opinion, May 16] suggests that Arizona’s new law restricting ethnic studies courses in public schools is too vague to be legally enforceable.
This law, passed at the urging of Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, specifically targets the Hispanic studies program in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). Since TUSD has already publicly stated that it would not abandon this highly successful educational program, the law’s actual legality could soon be tested.
Using the law’s wording, a reasonable person could argue that most of the K-12 curriculum that promotes EuroAmerican values and perspectives on history and social change is an ethnic-studies program violating the law, especially as that curriculum largely ignores Native American and other key ethnic aspects of American history.
— James Nason, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington