Exact name of new course causes stir by Julie Chang, Austin American-Statesman

Here is another news item published by Julie Chang in today's Austin American-Statesman regarding the name change to the course that we have been advocating now for some time.  Names do matter.  Rather than cultural erasure which is what the SBOE's name for us is about ("Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent").  Around 40 people testified yesterday and not a single person spoke for the name; all were against.

All of this follows, of course, after our multi-sited statewide press conference that took place on Wednesday, May 30, 2018.

I would think that the board would want to get us off their backs and just change the name.  After all, we have a lot of momentum and we meet regularly to discuss strategies and next steps—and not solely with respect to what SBOE board members are up to, but to actually address Mexican American Studies curriculum which is in great demand.  Here is our MAS clearinghouse website: https://mastxeducation.com/

Plus, it's costing taxpayers a lot of money for the SBOE's agenda to get squeezed on the relatively few days that they meet annually because of the numbers, passion, and unrelenting commitment by our community to this legacy project to bring MAS to the public schools throughout the state of Texas only grows with new voices because of our dogged determination.

As SBOE member, Ruben Cortez, expresses below this move by the board to name us "Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent" smacks of discrimination.

Note: We've already won for Texas public schools African American Studies, Latino Studies, Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, and Native American Studies.  At issue is that we as Mexican American scholars, students, and community haven't won for ourselves "Mexican American Studies," a respected field of study in the academy.  

I myself am a Mexican American Studies scholar.  

Angela Valenzuela

#NoToAmericansOfMexicanDescent #ApproveMAS

Exact name of new course causes stir

At issue is putting ‘Mexican-American’ in course name.

Jullie Chang| Austin American-Statesman

June 13, 2018

NEW DETAILS MEXICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES

Dozens of scholars and activists called Tuesday on the State Board of Education to change the name of a new statewide Me xi can-American studies course to include the term "Me xi can-American."

The Republican-led board voted in April to start developing the curriculum for a high school social studies elective course called "Ethnic Studies: An Over view of Americans of Mexican Descent. " Me xi can-American activists applauded the development of the course, but they decried the name, saying it did not accurately represent Me xi can-American identity and does not reflect an established area of study.

The proposed name is "going to be received as an indignity ... because it implies that somehow being Mexican-American is a threat to the notion of being American.

An ethnic identity should not be a test of what it means to be American," Houston school district educator Doug las Torres-Edwards told the board. Tor res-Edwards wrote that district's Me xi can-American studies curriculum on which the statewide course will be based.

Board member Rub en Cortez, D-Brownsville, said he has proposed changing the name of the course to "Mexican-American Studies. " The board is slated to take a preliminary vote Wednesday on the course name and curriculum.

Cortez said during a rally before Tuesday's board meeting that the name approved by the board in April was discriminatory, calling board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, who proposed the name, "mean-spirited."

Brad ley, who was absent Tuesday, had said at the April meeting that he didn't want the name "Mexican-American Studies" to promote divisiveness.

Board member Barbara Cargill, R-Conroe, echoed Bradley's concerns.

"From some of our constituents, we're hearing concerns ... that not calling them Americans is going to be divisive for our students. The whole purpose of coming up with a different name was to address those concerns.

There was no intent to take away identity, cause anger or demean anyone," Car gill told the American-Statesman.

Tor res-Edwards offered to help write into the curriculum that American values would be upheld in the course.

Car gill said those extra steps "would go a long way," but she wasn't ready to support naming the course "Mexican-American Studies."

Board member Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, told the Statesman he wanted to ensure that a course would be available to all His panic students, not just Mexican-Americans but that he was leaning toward calling the course "Mexican-American Studies."

Board member Pat Hardy, R-Fort Worth, said she was still undecided about the course name.

"The fact that people have an emotional attachment to the name, it means a lot, and 83 percent of Latinos in the state identify as Mexican-Americans so I'm feeling more and more comfortable about it," Hardy said.

At least three Republicans and all five Democrats on the 15-member board would have to join forces for the name "Mexican-American Studies" to have a chance at passing.

If the board approves the curriculum for the course this week, the board must take a final vote in September.

The earliest the course could be offered is in the 2019-20 school year.

Contact Julie Chang at 512-912-2565.

Twitter: @juliechang1

If only Texas School Board members could themselves take a course in Mexican American Studies to dispel their fears, that would be helpful.  In the meantime, the SBOE needs to trust all 40 or so that testified in favor of the name change.
They vote on this today and again on Friday.  

I hope we're not having to return again at the September meeting of the State Board of Education to advocate for the change. I want to be hopeful...

Angela Valenzuela

“Names are important”: Texas activists protest the renaming of “Mexican-American Studies” course to “Ethnic Studies”

Republican State Board of Education member David Bradley proposed the new course title in April, saying he found "hyphenated Americanism to be divisive.” On Tuesday, another board member, Democrat Ruben Cortez, called Bradley “the most mean-spirited” person on the board. 

BY DAVID YAFFE-BELLANY JUNE 12, 2018 19 HOURS AGO

Texas activists pushing for a high school course on Mexican-American history won a hard-fought victory in April, when the State Board of Education voted to create the class. 

But that victory was bittersweet, as Republicans and one Democrat on the 15-member board voted to name the course “Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent” rather than “Mexican-American Studies,” the title that advocates for the class favored.

On Tuesday, a long line of Mexican-American activists and educators from across the state testified at a hearing in front of the board, calling for members to change the course's title to Mexican-American studies. As each person testified, dozens of supporters sitting in the audience waved their hands in a silent show of approval. 

“Names are important. They have an impact on students in numerous ways,” Elizabeth Santos, a trustee on the Houston ISD school board, said in her testimony. “Our children cannot help but be aware of who they are. This style of naming minimizes the role distinct identities and backgrounds play in shaping the diversity that is such an advantage for our state.” 

The board was gathered in the William B. Travis Building in Austin ostensibly to hear public input on proposed curriculum standards for the course, modeled on a Mexican-American studies class that Houston ISD began teaching in 2015. But at Tuesday’s hearing, those standards were mostly an afterthought, as the speakers railed against the board’s decision to rename the course. The board could vote on whether to change the course title as early as Wednesday, when it reconvenes to discuss the curriculum standards.

Donna Bahorich, a Houston Republican who chairs the board, pressed on the educators’ testimony, asking whether someone with Mexican ancestors who identifies as Latino or Chicano would feel comfortable with a course titled Mexican-American studies.

“Why is saying ‘Mexican heritage,’ when there are different ways of referring to yourself, why is that not appropriate?” she asked Santos and other representatives of Houston ISD. “I’m a 60-year-old white woman. I don’t understand how this world works.”

At a protest outside the Travis Building on Tuesday morning, local activists and Democratic school board members argued that the new course title represents an assault on their ethnic identity.

“I can tell you that April meeting was one of the hardest meetings I’ve had to attend,” Ruben Cortez Jr., a Democrat who represents Brownsville on the board, said at the protest. “This is nothing more than discrimination.”

Beaumont Republican David Bradley proposed the course title in April, saying he found "hyphenated Americanism to be divisive.” That claim drew the ire of Democrats on the board and advocates for the course: At the protest, Cortez called Bradley “the most mean-spirited” member of the board.

Bradley missed Tuesday’s hearing because, he said, he did not want to skip a full week of work. But he responded to Cortez’s criticism in an email, saying he has become “impatient with a board member, who after 4 years, is generally unprepared to debate issues and has yet to master even basic parliamentary skills.” 

“Everyones [sic] initiative was to find a compromise that got the course passed,” Bradley wrote. “Mr. Cortez should learn to say Thank You.”

A Democratic board member, Georgina Pérez of El Paso, also voted for the ethnic studies title in a deal with Republicans to secure approval for the course. "I've personally invested years of effort into getting this course into classrooms,” she told The Texas Tribune after the April vote. “It has meant a great deal to me. That is why it was important for me to ensure that it was going to pass.”

Texas education activists have demanded an official Mexican-American studies course for years. In 2014, the board rejected a proposal to create the course on the grounds that it would be racially divisive.

The proposed curriculum standards — which would set uniform guidelines for any school district in the state that wants to offer the course — call for students taking the class to develop a grasp of the major events that have shaped the Mexican-American experience, with an emphasis on 20th- and 21st-century history, including the immigration enforcement initiative Operation Wetback and the activism of Cesar Chavez.

Juan Carmona, who testified at the hearing and teaches a Mexican-American studies course at Donna ISD, told the Tribune he was broadly satisfied with the proposed curricular standards, although he still sees gaps, especially in the area of indigenous and Native American history.

“The fact that it exists is a good thing. The fact that they’re looking at standards for it is a good thing,” he said. “Does it need some extra work? Yes.”

Also on Tuesday, the school board heard public testimony on possible adjustments to the social studies standards adopted in 2010 — a set of guidelines that critics deride as “a triumph of ideology over facts.”

As currently written, the standards downplay the role of slavery in the Civil War and require students to study Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address. Several people who testified at the meeting called on the board to remove language from the standards that identifies “states’ rights” and “sectionalism” as causes of the Civil War. 

“We are in a national moment where we’re correcting history on this score, all around the country, even in Texas,” said Ryan Valentine, deputy director of the Texas Freedom Network, in his testimony. “The board has an opportunity to join that righteous cause and make sure that history in our classrooms in Texas is truthful and honest and accurate.”

The board is scheduled to discuss the social studies standards at the meeting on Wednesday. A final vote on the proposed adjustments to the standards will take place in November, according to Debbie Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the State Board of Education.  

Aliyya Swaby contributed reporting.

Announcement: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 Rally and Testimony in Support of Mexican American Studies at 8:30AM at the Texas State Board of Education

Dr. Juan Flores reflects in his piece below titled, "Education inequality the Texas way," on how he experienced Texas growing up:

As I remember it, in direct and subtle ways I was taught that white was good and brown was bad, the Spanish language and Mexican-American culture were dirty, and 100-plus white heroes killed 5,000 dirty Mexicans at the Alamo. Sadly, this is still a subliminal message that gets conveyed daily to far too many Texas school children today, regardless of ethnicity. We are still desperately in need of a curriculum—specifically a Mexican American Studies curriculum—that provides a complete picture of who we are as Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the state of Texas.

Should you have some time on Tuesday of this coming week, consider joining us at 8:30AM at a rally at the William B. Travis Building 1701 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701 to advocate for Mexican American Studies in the school curriculum—and NOT the name that the SBOE gave us in their last meeting on April 11, 2018, namely, "Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent." Here is the SBOE agenda and instructions on testifying.

We also need to call for Women and Gender Studies, as well as for the state to direct resources for developing a clearinghouse for Mexican American Studies, and Ethnic Studies, generally.

Here are some instructions from Juan Tejeda for testifying before the SBOE next week:

If you're planning on testifying before the Texas State Board of Education on behalf of Mexican American Studies this coming Tuesday, June 12, in Austin, online registration opened on Friday, June 8, at 8am, and will be open through this Monday, June 11, until 5pm. The agenda item is #2 of the full board. Here is the link to register: http://bit.ly/2FeZbAM You can also register by calling 512.463.9007 today or Monday during work hours.

Angela Valenzuela

#ApproveMAS #SomosMAS #NoToAmericansOfMexicanDescent



Education inequality the Texas way.
Juan H. Flores, For the Express-News



Published 12:00 am, Sunday, April 15, 2018


Texas’ student populations have become more diverse — and educational inequality still exists in the state. Here, students pour into the Judson High School hallway last year.



Texas’ ongoing education-funding battles and the State Board of Education’s rancor toward Mexican-American Studies raise painful education memories.
In August 1973, I arrived in Seattle to begin my graduate education at the University of Washington. I visited the campus on a beautiful clear Sunday.
I vividly remember breaking into tears as I sat in the square in front of the beautiful Gothic-designed main library. As I admired the architecture, I felt bathed in a cloak of knowledge radiating from the buildings around me. I was awestruck viewing snow-capped Mount Rainier 130 miles out. Mount Rainier, the highest mountain in North America, seemed like a metaphor for my achievement.

I realize now that the tears were the emotional response to overcoming a repressive and institutionalized racist public education system. It was unimaginable that I was entering graduate studies after a Texas public education that belittled me beginning in kindergarten. Not one of my older 13 brothers and sisters had completed more than ninth grade, and I became a dropout six weeks into the 11th grade.
As I remember it, in direct and subtle ways I was taught that white was good and brown was bad, the Spanish language and Mexican-American culture were dirty, and 100-plus white heroes killed 5,000 dirty Mexicans at the Alamo.

I would come home feeling worthless, blaming my parents. Indeed, my excitement for learning was killed early.


If Dr. Cal Jillson is correct in his heavily documented book “Lone Star Tarnished: A Critical Look at Texas Politics and Public Policy,” Texas’ commitment to education for all its residents has been ambivalent at best since achieving statehood. If you were a white male and well-to-do, you reaped the benefit of a well-resourced education. Most women, low-income white males, blacks and Mexican-Americans fared poorly.

It may be true that overt racism is no longer present in our public schools, dropout rates have lowered, and the majority of high school graduates are now Latino. Nonetheless, the majority of Texas public school students who are low-income, African-American or Latino continue to bear the burden of a poor quality education. Whether intentional or by default, the result is a racialized education policy.
The procrastinations (more hearings and studies) and shifty decisions of the Texas Legislature and board of education demonstrate a lack of concern and priority for our children’s social and academic development. In addition, they ignore the economic evidence that racial equality corresponds with more robust growth for all Texans.
As a result, millions of Texas children are at risk of becoming another generation of undereducated adults with limited job skills and lower incomes. They will not achieve a middle-class status that is not based on credit card debt. They will, however, support the state’s status as a cheap source of labor.
I’m fortunate to have achieved the middle-class American Dream. I went through public school where there was no path for me to feel institutionally connected and supported. Nor was there a sentence or paragraph on a page that I could pridefully call my own because it positively recognized my history and culture in a place that is home.
Children start school motivated and ready to learn. It’s disingenuous to paint the education system a success by singling out the few at-risk youth who succeed in overcoming poverty when Texas education policies are contributing to their undereducated, low-income environment.
The focus must be to nurture every child’s first-day-of-school excitement by assuring they succeed through an unbiased lens, innovative instruction approaches and equitable education funding.


Juan H. Flores is a consultant and adviser on health and social policy.

Press Conference, PROTEST THE NAME CHANGE/KEEP MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES Tomorrow at 1:30PM

Friends,

Please attend the Austin press conference tomorrow in solidarity!  Also consider signing this petition.

TXSBOE Petition:  https://www.change.org/p/juan-tejeda-protest-the-name-change-keep-mexican-american-studies?recruiter=1456647&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=triggered

Ours is a progressive movement led by the K-12 Committee of the NACCS-Tejas Foco for curricular inclusion before the Texas State Board of Education, beginning with our name as a field, “Mexican American Studies.”

-Angela

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                  May 30, 2018

 

Title:                 Press Conference, PROTEST THE NAME CHANGE/KEEP MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Where:            Raul Salinas Room, Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center 

                        Note: Don’t pay for public parking. Go inside to the ESB-MACC office and get a parking pass that you can slip into the dash of your car.

When:              TOMORROW, Wednesday, May 30, 2018 at 1:30 pm

Contact:          Emilio Zamora, 512 739-0168

                     Greg Pulte, 469 831-0408

The K-12 Committee of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, Tejas Foco (Chapter) is sponsoring press conferences in six cities tomorrow (Wednesday, May 30) on the State Board of Education and its vote to change the name of the Mexican American Studies course.  One of these press conferences will be held in Austin.

K-12 Committee members want to bring attention to the decision by the State Board of Education to change the name of a Mexican American Studies course for our public schools to Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent.  We also want to invite people to show up for the June 12 Board meeting.  During this board meeting, we will protest the name change.  We will also be calling for the adoption of a Women and Gender Studies course and the creation of a resource center that would include curricular materials for teachers wishing to teach Mexican American Studies, as well as other fields of study.

Background

On Friday, April 13, 2018, the Texas State Board of Education (TXSBOE) approved Texas Essential Skills and Knowledge (TEKS) standards for a Mexican American Studies (MAS) elective course for high school students. This is the first time in Texas and U.S. history that a state board of education approved a MAS course. The TXSBOE also voted to open the process to create other Ethnic Studies courses, including Native American Studies, African American Studies, Latino Studies, and Asian/Pacific Islander Studies.

The TXSBOE vote to approve this MAS course should have been an historic accomplishment. The vote, however, was offensive and unacceptable.  We demand that the TXSBOE change the name of the course back to its original title, Mexican American Studies, for the following reasons:

1.     The course approved by the TXSBOE modeled itself after the Innovative course that the Houston Independent School District adopted with the consent of the Texas Education Agency. Its title, Mexican American Studies, reflects the Mexican American Studies declared course content and purpose;

2.     Mexican American Studies is an established Field of Study in Texas as authorized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the higher education counterpart to the TXSBOE. One of the main purposes of this designation is to align the curriculum across the educational pipeline and to grant the courses the necessary transferability from the high schools to the community colleges and universities. Naming the course Mexican American Studies conforms with the name of the field of study and policy of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and the logic of alignment and transferability;

3.     The stated reasons for changing the Mexican American Studies title are ahistorical and misleading. The term Mexican American is not divisive or biased. Mexican American has been the most popular English language self-referent since the early 1900s and the typical way to refer to Mexican-origin persons in the U.S. It affirms an American identity and national allegiance at the same time that it claims a Mexican ancestry. The term is no different from others, such as African Americans, Italian Americans, and Native Americans. Lastly, the use of the term Mexican expands the cultural meaning of American.

4.     Mexican Americans, as Indigenous people to this continent of America and an ethnic/racial minority in the U.S., have the right to self-identification. This right to name oneself at the individual and collective level is protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, specifically the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Mexican Americans have the right to tell their own stories, and those that have been written in their name, including the vast body of scholarly literature that uses the term Mexican American to describe their work and the courses that high school, college and university instructors are currently teaching;

5.     The large number of Mexican Americans in Texas public schools call for the designation of Mexican American Studies. Mexican Americans and other Latinx students comprise 52% of the almost 5.4 million students in Texas schools Pre-K-12, and this will grow to almost 70% by 2050;

6.     The title Mexican American Studies conforms with Mexican American Studies courses that Texas school districts have already adopted (some of which have been approved or allowed by the TXSBOE), as well as Social Studies, Texas and U.S. history courses that emphasize Mexican American history and contemporary experiences. In addition, the TXSBOE and Texas Education Agency have approved course content in Mexican American Studies since, at least, the 1980s, and called for textbooks in Mexican American Studies with Proclamations 2016 and 2018;

7.     In singling out the name change for this Mexican American Studies course, the TXSBOE has created a glaring inconsistency with the other endorsed courses included in the vote: Native American Studies, African American Studies, Latino Studies and Asian/Pacific Islander Studies; and

8.     The word "Overview" in the name change calls for a cursory treatment and not an in-depth examination of the subject, in contradiction with the broad purpose and content of this course. In addition, Mexican Americans/Chicanxs do not identify with the term “Americans of Mexican Descent.” It is a throwback to the 1950s Jim Crow era of segregation when Texas school officials disparaged the racial and ethnic makeup of Black and Brown youth.

In light of the renaming action by the TXSBOE, and all the reasons stated above, our questions for the nine Anglo Republicans and one Latina Democrat who voted for this name change are: What are the real reasons that you voted for this name change? Is it true, as board member Bradley stated to the press, that the TXSBOE would have never voted for the approval of this MAS course if the name had not been changed? And if so, why not? Who gave the very partisan TXSBOE the right to change the name of an entire and significant ethnic group of people in Texas and the U.S.?  Why was Mexican American Studies singled out? Does this constitute outright discrimination, or conscious/unconscious political bias?

Mexican Americans, and the diverse students of all colors and ethnicities in Texas public schools have the right to learn and understand the many positive contributions Mexican Americans and other ethnic groups have made to Texas and American history.

The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Tejas Foco Committee on Mexican American Studies Pre-K-12 has been working tirelessly over the last five years to advance Mexican American and other Ethnic Studies in Texas schools with significantly positive and historic results. The recent decision by the TXSBOE to misname this Mexican American Studies course represents another obstacle to our work, and a hindrance to learning in our schools. We are committed to opposing this name change until the TXSBOE adopts the original title of this course: Mexican American Studies.

Postscript

This NACCS Tejas Statement will be presented to the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education at their next meeting on Tuesday, June 12, 2018 at the William B. Travis Building (1701 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701). A "Protest the Name Change Press Conference & Rally" will precede the board meeting from 8:30-9:30am. The public is invited to attend the Rally and to testify before the board.