Reclaim the University- Administration and Faculty Failure at Sacramento State

by Duane Campbell
I just returned from a panel discussion at Sac State by faculty and students on Reclaim the University.  The event was sponsored by Students for Quality Education an organizing group with years of experience.  There  were strong positions on the need to hire new ethnic faculty made by both faculty and students.  Student after student reported that they had few contacts with ethnic faculty.   While there are some 22% of the students who are Latino, less than 6 % of the faculty are Latinos - less today than in 1974.
 African Americans are similarly under represented.

In 1972 the Government Dept. at Sac State had 2 African American faculty members and one Latino.  Today that department has 1 African American faculty member.  A parallel decline in Chicano/Latino faculty has occurred in the History Department and in the College of Education.

See here. https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/faculty-retention-at-csus--2011

A major contributor to the problem in the College of Education has been the elimination of the Department of Bilingual/Multicultural Education.

See https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/the-creation-and-demise-of-bilingual-education-at-csu-sacramento-2

When the BMED department existed from 1994- 2010,  Mexican American/Latino credential students in the College constituted some 34 % of the total students enrolled.  Since the elimination of the department Mexican American/Latino students constitute some 6% of the students in teacher preparation.  Latino students make up more than 40% of the students in local k-12 schools. Who will be their teachers?

Alejo bill moves California toward offering Ethnic Studies

by Roque Planas

A bill introduced last month by California Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D-Salinas) would require the state's Department of Education to develop a model for implementing a standardized, statewide ethnic studies curriculum for high schools.

Although controversies over Mexican-American studies have roiled conservatives in Southwestern states, Alejo's bill could put California on the path to adopting one of the most ambitious ethnic studies program for public schools in the country.

Latinos are the largest ethnic group in California schools by far, making up 53 percent of the student body, according to the California Department of Education. They are followed by non-Hispanic whites, at 26 percent, and Asians, at 9 percent.

But though people of color make up the solid majority of California's schools, ethnic studies proponents say their history and culture remain largely absent from classrooms and textbooks.

"We have probably one of the most diverse student populations in the country," Alejo told The Huffington Post. "We recognize those unique values and history, language and literatures -- all of that should be included in California’s high school curriculum."

See the well researched article here.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/03/california-ethnic-studies_n_4892111.html

This is an important step in the direction urged by the Mexican American Digital History Project for years. 

Texas- One step toward Ethnic Studies.

by Roque Palanco

Texas took a step toward instituting ethnic studies courses in public schools across the state on Wednesday, with the State Board of Education voting 11 to 3 to create instructional materials for such classes.

Activists had pushed since November for the Texas SBOE to create a statewide Mexican-American studies curriculum, arguing that such courses would help boost student achievement and foster cultural awareness in the state’s majority-Hispanic school system.

Instead, the more modest measure approved Wednesday mandates the adoption of textbooks for elective classes on Mexican-American studies, African-American studies, Native-American studies and Asian-American studies. Courses will be developed locally and schools will be able to adopt successful models developed in other districts using the state-approved instructional materials.

ed.note. What about California????

The idea won bipartisan support, with conservatives applauding the approach of giving local districts control over which curricula to adopt, while ethnic studies advocates looked forward to taking a greater role in developing the courses than if the state had been charged with the task.

Texas School Board Ducks Mexican-American Studies Vote

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press  April 10, 2014. 

The Texas Board of Education bypassed voting Wednesday on a hotly debated proposal to create a statewide Mexican-American studies course as a high school elective, instead simply asking publishers to submit textbooks for such a class and several other ethnic studies topics by the 2016-2017 school year.

Democratic member Ruben Cortez of Brownsville had promised to call for a vote on creating a stand-alone Mexican-American studies course, and supporters maintained it was key to truly understanding a state that was once part of Mexico and where Hispanics make up 51 percent of public school students.

But opponents dismissed the idea as reverse racism, arguing that it would inject leftist ideology into the classroom. Cortez said when it became clear that the board's 10 Democrats and five Republicans weren't ready to support his proposal, he settled on an alternative approach.

Immigration Uprising: How Change Happens

HOW CHANGE HAPPENS: THE IMMIGRATION UPRISING


By David Bacon

Two weeks ago hundreds of people inside the Tacoma Detention Center launched a hunger strike against its private operator, Geo Corporation, demanding better conditions and a moratorium on deportations. Activists, who have held vigils outside the center for years, now gather every day to support those inside. A week later the strike spread to another Geo facility in Texas. According to Maru Mora Villapando of Latino Advocacy in Tacoma, in both locations the company has isolated the strikers and in Tacoma threatened to force-feed them.

Immigrants, workers, union members, people of faith and community activists demonstrate in front of the Mi Pueblo market in East Palo Alto, California, calling for a moratorium on deportations and on the firing of undocumented workers because of their immigration status. (Photo: David Bacon)

This is only the most dramatic action of a wave of activity around the country, in which community and labor activists, and now deportees themselves, have refused to quietly endure increased immigration enforcement. They are mostly young, deriving much of their inspiration from the Dreamers who forced the administration two years ago to begin providing legal status to some of those who’d otherwise be deported. These activists refuse to wait for Congress to enact its immigration reform proposals, and in fact many reject them as fatally compromised. Instead, they’re organizing actions on the ground to win rights and equality:

Yes We Can. NYTimes Editorial

"Yes He Can, on Immigration" - NYTimes Editorial  

  

By: New York Times Editorial Board

  

If President Obama means what he says about wanting an immigration system that reflects American values, helps the economy and taps the yearnings of millions of Americans-in-waiting, he is going to have to do something about it - soon and on his own. It has been frustrating to watch his yes-we-can promises on immigration reform fade to protestations of impotence and the blaming of others. All Mr. Obama has been saying lately is: No, in fact, we can't, because Republicans and the law won't let me.

  

Mr. Obama is correct when he complains that long-term immigration repairs have been throttled in Congress. Neo-nativist Republicans fixated on mass deportation have blocked a worthy bipartisan bill. But Mr. Obama has compounded this failure by clinging to a coldblooded strategy of ramped-up enforcement on the same people he has promised to help through legislation that he has failed to achieve.

Deportations Hurt All Workers

Photo from Massachusetts Jobs with Justice

Liz Cattaneo. Jobs with Justice

Although President Obama has called deportations “heartbreaking,”immigrants in the United States continue to be separated from their families at a record pace. Nearly two million deportations have taken place under the Obama administration to date. On March 13, the President finally ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review its deportation practices but has rebuffed calls to use his executive powers to halt deportations for individuals who haven’t committed serious crimes.

A growing chorus of civil rights, faith, legal and human rights advocates are criticizing the administration’s deportation policy as unjust, arbitrary and counter to the spirit of immigration reform supported by the president and an overwhelming majority of Americans. There are myriad reasons why deportations should be curbed, but to start, the system makes it too easy for workers to be susceptible to abuse on the job.

The current status of farmworkers and the Chavez Legacy

Race and Politics- Strategic Racism

Mexican American Studies in Texas Schools

            




One Vote Could Change The Course Of Mexican-American Studies

Texas State Board of Education member Ruben Cortez says he'll propose a vote to decide whether to create a statewide Mexican-American studies course at the agency's meeting next month.

If passed, the measure would mark a major victory for Latino education activists who have pressed for a public school curriculum more reflective of their state's majority-Hispanic student body.

Ed. note.  California does not have Mexican American Studies in the state approved curriculum. See https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/why-california-students-do-not-know-chicano-history

"This is it -- we've been inching our way to a vote," Cortez told The Huffington Post. "Just the mere fact that we're going to have a vote is historic."

The group Librotraficante, formed in 2012 to protest the banning of the Tucson Mexican-American studies program, started calling last year for the Texas SBOE to include a dual-credit Mexican-American studies course when the state agency took up the question of new course design.