Second, we might have had a Mesopotamia consisting of a loose federation of states, each free to pursue its own religious and ethnic course.
Sean Arce, director of Tucson's Mexican-American studies department, said the ethnic studies courses do teach students about the marginalization of different groups in the United States through history.
Ethnic studies courses provide a growing but controversial example of such "culturally relevant pedagogy". However, the empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these courses is limited.
Furthermore, Mr. Arce said, the ethnic studies courses have been highly effective in reducing students' dropout rates and increasing their college matriculation well above the national average for Latino students.
Judy Burns, president of the governing board of the Tucson schools, said the district's ethnic studies courses did not violate any of the provisions of the new law and would be continued because they were valuable to the students.
However, Arizona House Bill 2281, which bans from the public schools ethnic studies courses that promote race consciousness, is one case where the remedy is worse than the disease, or rather is a form of it.
* A federal judge in Arizona ruled that the state's stopping a Mexican American studies program was wrongly driven by "racial animus". The termination of the course ended up being a perfect example of the community-organizing adage that "your opponents often do the best organizing for you," as it helped create momentum for ethnic studies courses to expand rapidly throughout the United States.
One of his major first achievements can be to implement ethnic studies courses within LAUSD.
The ruling will likely caution other state legislatures against trying to eliminate ethnic studies courses, according to Medina.
And if there are problems with the ethnic studies courses, the classes should be reformed, not banned.
