The Mexican American Studies (MAS) program in Arizona was a booming success, an anomaly within the No Child Left Behind era, the Tucson Unified School District, and the state of Arizona itself. With a fifty percent increase from the national high school graduation average of 44% (that’s a 94% graduation rate, for any of you who have trouble with math – an incredible feat), and a 70% percent college enrolment rate compared to just 24% nationally, the success of the MAS is undeniable. However the success frightened people. As Deb, the author of the article, so eloquently put it, “Young people being empowered is scary to many people, institutions and establishments.”
The very idea that these students were becoming capable of so much robbed “institutions and establishments” of their security and confidence…and they didn’t like that one bit. It wasn’t what the MAS was doing that was causing this uncertainty…it was who they were. It saddens me that school authorities/boards are so insecure that they would shut down such a successful program because of its success. Not to mention the fact that it is “frustrating to see someone who doesn’t have a background in education setting education policy.” They cannot be trusted to make good decisions for school programs.
At this point, our only hope for the MAS program lies in the perseverance of these bright students themselves.
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