Statement of Solidarity with Tucson's Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program by TAG:

As a network of Teacher Activist Groups (TAG) we believe that education is essential to the preservation of civil and human rights and is a tool of human liberation. In alignment with these beliefs we are are proud to coordinate a month of solidarity work in support of Tucson’s Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program. In January, 2011 state attorney general Tom Horne declared that the TUSD MAS program is illegal. Over the past year, teachers, students, and administrators have come together to challenge Horne’s ruling, but on January 10, 2012, the Tuscon Unified School District school board voted 4-1 to cease all MAS classes immediately for fear of losing state aid.

In the month of February we invite you to strike back against this attack on our history by teaching lessons from and about the banned MAS program. On this website you will find a guide that includes sample lesson plans from the MAS curriculum as well as creative ideas and resources for exploring this issue with students. Whatever happens in Arizona, we can keep the ideas and values of MAS alive by teaching about them in our classrooms, our community centers, our houses of worship, our homes.

February 1 is the first day on which TUSD must be in compliance this law. It is also the first day of African American History Month. And as Dr. King warned us, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” What is happening in Arizona is not only a threat to Mexican American Studies, it is a threat to our right to teach the experiences of all people of color, LGBT people, poor and working people, the undocumented, people with disabilities and all those who are least powerful in this country.

Our history is not illegal. Please join us by pledging your support at http://www.teacheractivistgroups.org/tucson/pledge

Tell your story: http://www.teacheractivistgroups.org/tucson/tell-your-story

Download the curriculum: http://www.teacheractivistgroups.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/NoHistoryIsIllegal.pdf

(from Rethinking Schools blog:) On Jan. 10, the governing board of Tucson schools voted to terminate the popular and enormously successful Mexican American Studies program, under pressure from the Arizona state superintendent of education. Follow this link to a letter from Tucsan Mexican American studies teacher Curtis Acosta posted on the Rethinking Schools blog: http://rethinkingschoolsblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/behind-the-curtain-in-tucson-a-letter-from-curtis-acosta/



(By Jeff Biggers on Huffington Post):

What happens in Arizona doesn't stay in Arizona.

As Tea Party state education chief John Huppenthal retreats into his office after an embarrassing national media tour on Arizona's extremist Ethnic Studies crackdown, and Tucson Unified School District administrators continue their slide into a public relations disaster over banishing Mexican American Studies curricula and books, a remarkably diverse array of librarians, educators, writers, civil rights activists and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is mounting a series of national actions to call attention to educational and civil rights violations and to support local Tucson efforts...

...On February 1st, teachers and schools around the country have been encouraged by Rethinking Schools, whose nationally acclaimed textbook Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years was confiscated and banished from Tucson schools, to follow the suggestion of former Tucson Mexican American Studies literature teacher Curtis Acosta for a "national day of solidarity where teachers would teach our curriculum all over the nation."~ from Arizona Unbound: National Actions on Mexican American Studies Banishment by Jeff Biggers