4.30.2010

arizona continues to suck

Wow. Arizona, you are seriously on a roll. The state's new education policy, sent to Governor Jan Brewer this week, essentially bans the teaching of ethnic studies classes: Arizona Ethnic Studies Classes Banned, Teachers With Accents Can No Longer Teach English.

Under the ban, schools will lost state funding if they offer any courses that "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

But wait! That's not all. The Arizona Department of Education has told schools that teachers with "heavy" or "ungrammatical" accents are no longer allowed to teach English classes: Arizona Grades Teachers on Fluency.

Teachers who don't meet the new fluency standards have the option of taking classes to improve their English, but if they fail to reach the state's targets it's up to the school districts to decide whether to fire or reassign teachers.

Awesome, Arizona. Between hunting down "illegal"-looking people and scrubbing out ethnicity from education, you're well on your way to hating everybody. Couple more rounds of this, and the state should be a pretty lonely place. On a related note: Students Withdraw From Arizona Universities In Reaction To Immigration Law.

angry archive