Tucson Ethnic Studies program deemed "unlawful"!? Come On Man!!!

I know it has been some time since I have blogged and I must place blame on actual graduate writing responsibilities and hosting for the holidays, which was a true pleasure.  Nonetheless, I am glad to be giving my blog some much needed attention.

Today I blog about a something that is very near to my heart…Ethnic Studies.   I am just over halfway through a Masters of Arts in Ethnic Studies from Regis University in beautiful Denver, Colorado.  Ethnic studies have always been a part of my life.  My upbringing in Albuquerque, my public schooling experience, and my family have nurtured my affinity for ethnic studies.  Many of you know that my aunt, the amazing Margaret Montoya, was the first Latina woman to graduate from the Harvard School of Law.  She is an inspiration and has left one amazing legacy for our family; a responsibility that we relish and welcome.  A friend of mine once had a t-shirt that read: I AM ETHNIC STUDIES; and I could not agree more.

With that said, yesterday in Tucson, AZ an administrative law judge ruled that a Tucson school district’s ethnic studies program violates state law.  Yes Ethnic Studies is unlawful!!!  Judge Lewis Kowal’s ruling, said the district's Mexican-American Studies program violated state law by having one or more classes designed primarily for one ethnic group, promoting racial resentment and advocating ethnic solidarity instead of treating students as individuals. Furthermore, the judge, who found grounds to withhold 10 percent of the district's monthly state aid until it comes into compliance, said the law permits the objective instruction about the oppression of people that may result in racial resentment or ethnic solidarity (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/27/ariz-schools-ethnic-studies-program-ruled-illegal/). 

Now, I have many friends that are conservative, that are liberal, democrats and republicans, conspiracy theorists, you name it.  And I don’t believe any of them would disagree that our currently polarizing political climate is corrosive and tearing this country apart.  It is this type of politically charged decision that is a microcosm of what is going on throughout the country. 

Judge Kowal argues that the Tucson school district’s ethnic studies program, “…promotes activism against white people, promotes racial resentment and advocates ethnic solidarity”.  I take serious reservations with this type of “plantation” rationale.  Essentially, if you are not part of the majoritan controlling demographic then you are not permitted to teach subjects, notions, ideas, methodologies, etc. that are counter to the established curriculum.  It’s irrelevant that the current public school measurement system (No Child Left Behind) is blatantly discriminatory (http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html).  NCLB, a standards based education reform, which is based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades, if those states are to receive federal funding for schools. The Act does not assert a national achievement standard; standards are set by each individual state.  Therein lays one of the inherent problems with NCLB.  It is up to the states to determine standards, which then creates no set consistent standard.  Also, since schools with lower income students receive less money with substandard teaching and facilities it doesn’t make much sense to punish them and withhold funding based on an arbitrary “standards based” educational reform. 

Furthermore, schools are primarily funded via property taxes, which is also grossly inequitable.   I can assure you, from experience, there is not a ton of home ownership in the lower income parts of almost every city in this country.   So if there are not many houses to levy taxes from then the schools receive less funding.  Now if you have an affluent neighborhood then the schools receive additional funding.   More houses = More $.  The discrepancy is not hard to identify.  Now I should mention, School districts can raise additional revenues through local bond (capital) and mill levy (operations) elections up until a specified level, but the economic vitality of many communities cannot support money raised through local bonds and mills.  Additional funding for public schools comes from private fundraising, primarily at schools in higher income communities – functioning as an additional “tax” on these families and further heightening equity concerns.  Such fundraising efforts are increasingly being outstripped by funding cuts at the state and district levels (http://www.greateducation.org/statistics-faqs/funding-faqs/public-school-funding/).

After saying all that, and seeing how discriminatory and blatantly racist No Child Left Behind and public school funding is, Judge Kowal’s argument that the Tucson school district’s ethnic studies program, “…promotes activism against white people, promotes racial resentment and advocates ethnic solidarity” seems ridiculous.  Ridiculous, because the overarching system that this Tucson Ethnic Studies program operates under ‘promotes activism against students of color’.  Yet, when the students of color create a program to educate themselves about their own cultures it is deemed unlawful.

Critically studying one’s culture should never be unlawful.  However, this type institutional racism and oppression that Judge Kowal promotes should be!

Thanks for listening and keep challenging oppression and discrimination when you see it!

¡Ciao!

Robert

This just in… God doesn’t care about football! She has more pressing things to worry about!

Let me start this by saying two things.  First, I cannot stand the Broncos but I am a fan of Tim Tebow and I find myself rooting for him week after week.  Second, I am a self admitted Agnostic, I respect all faiths and the one thing I am not a fan of is when people condemn others based on arbitrary limited religious knowledge.  OK now we can get started…

Let’s begin by saying and acknowledging that Tim Tebow is a freak athlete, arguably one of the best running backs in the league, and an utter anomaly who happens to play the most difficult position in all of football.  He has moxy and I respect his ability to be “Jordanesque” in the fourth quarter.  However, I do not think this ability is some form of Divine Intervention simply because Mr. Tebow is unabashed about his faith.  As I said above, I can’t imagine God really cares about football.  But… I am an avid fantasy football player and it is ridiculously addicting, so maybe She does have a team; no never mind.  All joking aside, I find it very opportunistic to use Tebow’s success and mini winning streak to promote a Christian agenda.  Plus, this streak has more to do with Denver’s defense playing lights out than anything.  I mean, watching most Denver games encompasses watching 3+ quarters of absolutely horrible offensive ‘Wing-T’ football.

I respect that Tebow prays on the sidelines and gives thanks.  Knowing what little I do about Tebow, I would assume that what he is doing is simply saying “thanks”.  I can’t imagine he asks God for a 'win', he seems far too nice and smart a dude to do that.  Speaking of nice dudes; this also just in, Mr. Tebow is not the only good dude in the NFL.  He is a poster boy (and a pretty good looking one at that, so say all my female coworkers) for athletes who act like decent human beings.  We need this with our current crop of athletes who garner far too much attention.  Yet, his faith is used by media and other outlets, like many other issues, to divide people and pimp out some sort of agenda.  We should simply enjoy seeing him succeed, or not succeed if you're not a fan, on the field regardless of his religious beliefs.

Good for you Tim Tebow and Bronco fans.  I am enjoying this just as much as any other NFL fan.  The NFL truly is the best soap opera on TV.

Robert.

P.S. I think Tebowing is a pretty awesome Internet phenomenon.

Educational requirements for Congress and The Office of the President? Nevermind, not needed!

As we continue to grow the gap between the wealthiest of Americans and the ever-eroding middle class, it is now a necessity for citizens who are looking for jobs to have an advanced degree.  An MBA, Masters in Education, Masters in Organizational Leadership, M.A., and Ph.D.s are now needed to compete for jobs that were once considered entry level for baccalaureate degrees merely fiteen years ago.  We have watered down a college degree so much that a bachelor’s degree is now equivalent to high school diploma (for reasons see my blog below regarding For-Profit Piranhas).   I start with this to make a very distinct point; if we as job seeking individuals have to continuously obtain greater educational experiences and advanced degrees to qualify and be considered for employment, our elected leaders should be as well!

Over the past few years, and especially the past couple weeks, I have witnessed firsthand how incredibly ill-prepared and ill-informed our potential Presidential candidates are.  Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Dan Quayle, Michelle Bachman, etc., etc., etc., have made a mockery of what running for President or being in office requires.  On campaign trails, educated candidates, including President Obama, have been criticized for being too educated.  Is there such a notion?  Too educated?  Converserly, there should then be an argument for not having enough education to run for office. 

Now, I do not discredit that there are numerous individuals who have done amazingly well despite not having a formal education.  However, it is imperative that we have advanced degree requirements for all members of Congress and the office of the President.  We entrust these leaders with our safety, well-being, future and livelihood and yet we do not hold them accountable to continuously seeking knowledge and to navigating the very same academic requirements that we insist on other individuals in all sectors of society.  Given the direction and utter divisiveness that permeates our political landscape, not to mention their job approval ratings, our leaders are failing us.  They are a product of a failing K-12 educational system that does not teach individuals how think critically and they are prisoners to a corrupt two-party system.  

As a graduate student I am inundated, in every class, to think critically and with an 'interdisciplinary' approach.  I would argue that, as a whole, our leaders are incapable of doing this, simply because we do not hold them accountable to having any form of an advanced degree.  It is a shame that leaders who continuously make fools of themselves are still front-runners for the most visible and imperative job in the entire world. 

We have regressed so far as a country that we tolerate such idiocy.  As Congress stumbles and remains impotent regarding the economy, education and the jobs crisis and focus on issue like reaffirming “In God We Trust” as our national motto; it is no wonder that we are headed in the direction we are; I would argue there are more pressing issues.

As Albert Einstein once said, “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death”.  It is a shame that mnay do not hold our leaders and presidential candidates to this standard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJvF0JzBVxI&feature=player_embedded

Robert

For-Profit Piranhas!! The Student Loan Bubble!

With President Obama here in snowy Denver today talking about student loan issues, I thought it fitting to talk about this very serious issue.  I think what the President is proposing is a step in the right direction, student loan interest rates and payments are crippling.  With the current job market, and 'job creators' pocketing money; it is troubling times for students entering the job market.  As higher education costs keep going up and jobs going away, a perfect storm is on the horizon regarding the student loan bubble.  According to the Wall Street Journal, student loan debt is now greater than credit card debt (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/08/09/student-loan-debt-surpasses-credit-cards/). 

With that said, I think what the President is proposing is admirable, however, it is treating the symptom and not the main cause.  So what is the cause? 

FOR PROFIT INSTITUTIONS!

Schools like The University of Phoenix, Devry, Kaplan, and Argosy are plain and simply predators! 90% of their profits comes in the form of Federal student aid (aka tax payers dollars).  It is blatantly obvious that they prey on students of color and first generation students.  As David Moltz, of Inside Higher Ed states:

“Many low-income and first-generation students are not achieving success after participating in for-profit programs. Instead, we are seeing students who emerge with considerable loan burdens and without the ability to obtain meaningful employment or transfer the credits earned at for-profit institutions to accredited, publicly supported or independent institutions.”

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/03/18/legislators_criticize_gainful_employment_rules#ixzz1bufHu7XL
Inside Higher Ed 


Many of these programs lower admissions standards, invest significantly less in students, and restrict transferring to not-for-profit institutions by holding up financial aid dollars.  This past year, there was legislation to regulate this corrupt behavior.  It was called the Gainful Employment Act.  "Under the regulations, a draft of which came out in February, for-profit colleges would not be eligible to receive federal student aid if their graduates’ debt load was too high to be repaid, over 10 years, with 8 percent of their starting salary" (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/education/06gain.html). Unfortunately, this bill was totally watered down and altered, due to the very aggressive lobbying efforts of the for-profit-institutions.  Possible only because corporations are now considered "people" and can donate to campaigns in gross amounts (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission). 

 

Despite attempts to 'reign in' this for-profit monster and study after study showing that students who go to these institutions are not getting jobs and defaulting on students loans at unbelievable levels, nothing is being done (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/03/for-profit-students-default-loans-new-data_n_818507.html).  Our leadership in Washington and at the State level are failing in this situation; cutting educational funding to K-12 and State community colleges, colleges and universities.  There is a direct correlation to de-funding public education and the rise of for-profit institutions.  If students are being ill prepared in elementary, middle and high school, and they cannot get into to competitive institutions, their only option is to attend these for-profit schools, with less support, less investment and mediocre instruction. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/college-prices-up-again-a_0_n_1032336.html).

I encourage each of you to reach out to your Congress woman and men and convey how dangerous these for-profit institutions are and how you are aware that the student loan bublle paralels the housing crisis of just a few years ago (it is appalling they do not see the similarities, citizens getting loans they shouldn't have and not being able to pay them back, seems remedial).

If you want to learn some more about this I encourage you to check out Frontline's College INC.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/view/

¡Ciao!

Robert



Using Images to Create Fictitious Environments! M.O.D.'s

Let me start by saying I am simply over marketing departments across the country using minorities to promote workplaces, campuses, and institutions that simply do not exist.  I call this the "M.O.D." approach.   And for those of you who have worked in restaurants I am not talking about a "manager on duty", I am referring to the "Minorities On Display" that are consistently used on glossy brochures, web pages and  other point-of-sale materials.  It is an epidemic and quite frankly insulting. 

As enrollments for students of color at not-for-profit degree-granting post secondary institutions continues to drop (the for-profits is a blog unto itself and coming soon) and the hateful policies of Arizona's SB 1070 continues to spread across the nation, marketers still see value in parading their people of color. (http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/03/sb_1070_copycat_bills.html). 

Despite this type of hateful discriminatory rhetoric that permeates our political landscape, marketing departments, campaign officials, and HR departments still believe that the best type of materials are the ones that include their "token" people of color.  I simply Google searched (see below) the top institutions of this country, who have the strictest admission qualifications and they too utilize this M.O.D. approach.   The proportion of minorities in their brochures and web pages is not remotely close to the number of actual students that matriculate through their storied buildings (Dept of Ed http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72).  This seems to be the case for almost all schools and major corporations websites.

You may be asking; Why this is a bad thing?  Is it not a good thing to promote diversity?  Answer.  Yes it is, but not a fictitious sense of inclusion and diversity.  It is false advertisement to advance inclusivity at inflated levels when in fact it is not a representation of a specific campus or place of employment.

I have been used in this manner at every place I have ever worked at.  I am embarrassed to say that I have not made a bigger deal about this until now.  I always wanted to promote some sense of diversity even if it was not totally accurate.  In hindsight, I wish I would not have.  I think if a company wants to truly promote diversity and culture they should start with creating a robust Inclusion Plan.  One that includes feedback from all levels of employees and one that is not written to simply avoid litigation.  Let me be clear about this.....Sexual harassment seminars do not encompass diversity and inclusion!!!  Diversity should be a philosophy and should be celebrated everyday; not in a training session. 

However, these brochures sure make it seem like Diversity is a pillar.

It is time for those of us who are used in this manner to cry foul and stop promoting fantasy/fictitious diversity environments.

Robert

http://web.mit.edu/admissions/

http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/index.html

http://www.yale.edu/res/slideshow/8.html

The myth of 'Honest Abe' ! How a beloved President is misbranded and mismarketed by history books.

“My paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union. I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people. There is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality" (A. Lincoln, 1858-1862). (http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3487)

Many who read this quote may find it shocking. As children we were taught that President Lincoln was motivated by morality to abolish slavery and sign the 13th , 14th, and 15th Amendments into law. However, those who subscribe to critical race theory (CRT) would likely not be shocked at all by reading the aforementioned quote. As Derrick Bell (who recently passed) clarifies, “We [people of color] rise and fall less as a result of our efforts than in response to the needs of a white society…. With that said, critical race theorists (click for more info on CRT) argue that all racial advancements by and for people of color in this country have been allowed or implemented only because it also benefited the white privileged elite in some way which is referred to as Bell’s Interest Convergence Theory (click for more info on ICT). The intent of CRT is that people of color have different experiences with oppression and can communicate to their White counterparts situations that they are unlikely to know or identify with.

I understand that this may be a difficult subject to digest as we have been conditioned to see President Lincoln as a savior when in fact his motivation was stability and not equality.  We must be cognizant of how issues are branded and promoted, because it is usually intentional and done to conceal and lessen the actual impact on subordinated people.  Conservatives, tea-partiers, and right wing are masters of this.  They can promote an agenda/issue/platform that has no tangible positive impact on the majority of their base constituency.  Yet they package it, promote it and sell it with a skill that rivals the best illusionist. 

Familia, we must open our eyes and reveal the "wizard" behind the curtain and expose the intent of this "return to traditional America values" movement.  An intent that has everything to do with white privileged and a removal of President of color.  One who, by simple pigmentation does not fit the definition of "traditional American values".

Robert

Same stuff different medium

After years of venting, discussing, and sharing on Facebook I have decided to transition to a blog.  I have grown tired of the Facebook philosophers, quote sharers, drama promoters, laundry lists, and overall lack of substance.  I still want to connect with those who I care about and are interested in sharing thoughts and engaging in conversations that transcend self promotion and soft porn.

I look forward to this new medium and hope that many of you will continue to listen to my diatribes and rants.

Robert