La Raza to the Bottom

There's much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Tucson Intelligentsia over the defeat of the school overrides.  How could the enlightened voters of Tucson--after years of training by the Star--overwhelmingly reject much needed budget overrides?  Perhaps the university professors, think tank operators and newspaper editors should stop asking each other that question and turn to some real voters.  

A friend of mine did just that at the Tucson gun show yesterday.  Sure, it's not scientific to wander around the gun show and ask people why they think Tucson voters rejected the overrides, but the answers he received were instructive.

And the answer?  "Those damn La Raza programs."   For some reason the guys at the gun show didn't think that a program that teaches that the founding fathers are racists and Che Guevara was a hero deserved any more funding. 

But you respond that the gun show crowd's response isn't not logical.  After all, the overrides funded a lot more than TUSD Ethnic Studies programs, and some of the overrides weren't even for TUSD.  That's true, and the elite opinion makers can whine about that over brie and lattes if they want, but eventually they will figure out that voters aren't exceptionally analytical.  They vote on a 30-second impression: "he's an honest candidate, or "she can bring about change", or "TUSD is really screwed up and they have all these radical leftists wearing Che T shirts and teaching kids about the evil white guys." 

Well, the "evil white guys" voted no.  Disrespect ordinary voters long enough and they tend to do that. 

Comments

[Carl Hay]

A good observation.

TUSD actually INCREASED funding this year for ethnic studies while cutting funding for core education.

However, the other reason is that voters are angry at the extremely high cost of the centralized administration in TUSD.

[todd]

'Well, the "evil white guys" voted no.'

And provided further evidence that they are perfectly willing to throw Hispanic students overboard - just like the students are learning from studying history in La Raza studies.

[Sal Dispicable]

Perhaps, and I'm just saying here, that the gun show people might not have been the best sampling. Perhaps asking them when the last time they voted to increase any tax, for any reason, would have yielded the same results but with a different reason.

[Matt]

Our local schoold district, S.V. lost their override vote too. Voters got tired of being asked to additionally fund mediocre education. We have a significant number of charter schools in our community that provide decent educations with smaller class sizes using less money per pupil. The local school district can learn to do so as well. The district while making cut backs in some programs (PE, Music) at the elementary level, haven't justified to the voters and tax-payers why they have multiple assistant principles whose primary jobs are to coach athletic teams. We know that athletics are important, but when a program directly benefits a small number of students at great cost, then it should be cut.
I think one of the things that severely hurt TUSD was the appearance of going to a discipline program that would take into account ethnic/cultural backgrounds etc when doling out punisment.

[BobH]

Todd, I'm glad you brought this point to public attention.

Until reading your comment, I had thought that the budget questions had to do with all students in the Tucson schools, but now I am aware that budgets will be cut for Hispanic students, while there will be no effect on spending on white, black, Asian, and other students.

This is an outrage.

[RonB]

Todd's favorite newspaper headline:
WORLD TO END TOMORROW
Women, Children and Minorities
Hurt Worst

Todd: you really, really need to get a new gig.

[Steve F.]

All the dolts in TUSD have to do is rename the program back to "Social Studies", and everything is all good.

The same deranged leftists can teach the class (who will learn that you just have to agree with the instructor to get a good grade, even if he is a lunatic, and therefore learn nothing), and nobody will really care.

Some students will be influenced, others will nod their heads in agreement to get an A, but privately disagree with everything the instructor says.

And the vast majority won't give a damn either way.

But nooooooo...they have to rub "LA RAZA" in everyone's face, and get them (quite rightfully) riled up, just because they have been given the power to do so.

Fortunately the voters have the power to hit them in the pocketbook and we will continue to pummel them until they get the freaking point.

[Chad]

Greg - I take umbrage with your comment "elite opinion makers can whine about that over brie and lattes..."

Brie does not go well with latte. Rich, white liberals tend to prefer either white wine with brie or scones with their latte.

Us conservative, however, like beer and nachos.

[todd]

BobH and RonB - since the discussion was in the context of La Raza studies I was of course referring directly to those students enrolled. Of course the cuts will hurt every student, regardless of ethnicity.

[OMG!]

Yeah, gun shows are a grate place to reserch public opinion. And don't tell me about my speling, you libril elitist.

[PW]

Where to begin? First of all, as someone with a graduate degree from one of the 10 best schools in the world, I very much consider myself an elitist - but I am not a liberal, nor do I like brie, nor do I like latte. So that caricature is hard to accept. (For the record: cheddar and black coffee).

Secondly, and just so I understand, if you go to a gun show in Tucson (!), that's where one finds typical, average people. But if the Republic goes to ASU or GPEC that's not to be trusted as representative opinion?

[Joy]

I voted no in Phoenix because of dishonest advertising "not a tax increase." I'm sorry, but if the current tax is scheduled to go away, and you ask me to replace it with another tax, that's an increase over what I'd be paying if I vote no. If they tried some honesty, I'd look into the merit of the tax increase more thoroughly. As it is, I don't vote in favor of being lied to.

[Jim Torgeson]

What I find amusing is that some people find tax increases totally acceptable, they really have no line in the sand, no boundaries.

Public education, as a whole, has taken huge hits over the lst few decades. Rising costs, single parent families, juicy retirements, insurance rising, etc...

Specialty programs tend to add another cost.

So here we are, all acting in self interest, whether for or aginst taxes, just wanting education to be good again.

Guess what? It's going to take a great deal of district consolidation, core studies support, asking more of teachers, finding retirement options that won't put us in the place California is and, on top of all that, smaller class sizes.

It's one huge headache that will probably mean a whole lot of kids get short changed. That's awful to think.

Back towards topic... charter schools generally have smaller class sizes, even with a special program. It seems to me that the smaller class size leads to btter academic results and a firmer handle on kid's behavior.

If you want some specialty education, you may want to reconsider your support of charter schools.