TUCSON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- An Arizona administrative law judge has upheld a decision that Tucson's Chicano studies courses are anti-American.
The 11th-grade Mexican-American studies classes include textbooks and other materials indicating white people were seen as "oppressors" of Latinos, which violates a state law that bans schools from offering classes that are deemed to promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, encourage resentment toward a race or class of people, designed primarily for a single ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity, Judge Lewis D. Kowal said Tuesday.
The ruling upholds Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal's determination about the ethnic studies program, the Arizona Daily Star reported. The Tuscon Unified School District had appealed Huppenthal's decision.
Kowal also said the state has grounds to withhold 10 percent of the district's state aid, about $15 million a year, until it changes the curriculum.
The judge said there is a difference between the objective teaching of historical oppression and presenting material in a "biased, political, and emotionally charged manner, which is what occurred in (Mexican American Studies) classes."
