The AS will vote on whether to pass a resolution asking Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna to send a letter to Arizona’s attorney general regarding the reinstatement of Arizona’s Mexican-American Studies program.

In this resolution, the AS will also vote whether to oppose the law by which the Mexican-American Studies program was stopped.

The Mexican-American Studies program in the Tucson Unified School District was shut down after the superintendent put financial pressure on them to end the program.

The law states no class or program in any public school will “promote the overthrow of the United States government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, be designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

If the resolution is passed in full, the AS would be right in taking a stand against the removal of the program in an Arizona school district. This editorial board believes they would not be right in taking a stand opposing the law.

The circumstances of the creation of the law, and the removal of the program, seem fishy to us.   

John Huppenthal, creator of the law when he was in state government — his term ended in 2010 — and current superintendent of public instruction in Arizona, told the school district hosting the program that for every month the Mexican-American Studies program remained in the district, he would cut 10 percent of funding for the entire district. 

Huppenthal claims the program is in violation of his law, mostly because it promotes resentment toward a race or class of people and is designed for a specific ethnic group, according to the National Public Radio.

In an NPR interview, Huppenthal said, “So the racemizing of the class was to imbue a sense that the oppressed are Hispanic kids and the oppressor is a white Caucasian power structure.”

It is important to differentiate between classes designed to target an ethnic group and classes that discuss racial disparity — something that we cannot pretend doesn’t exist in our society. The Mexican-American Studies program is not limited to Hispanic students.

The law also states you cannot shut down “courses or classes that include the history of any ethnic group and that are open to all students, and courses or classes that include the discussion of controversial aspects of history.”

We believe in this situation the law should have favored the program and the students who it influenced.

This editorial board supports the law in its most basic form. The law discourages exclusion in schools because of race or ethnicity, an important aspect of attending public school.

In these circumstances, we believe the law was abused to end a program that did not actually violate the law.

To us, the removal of the Mexican-American Studies program seems to be the result of one man’s ignorance.

If the resolution is passed, the AS will be right to act in solidarity with Tucson Unified School District students in their opposition to the removal of this program. However, instead of opposing the law in its complete form, they should ask for it to be specified so situations like this do not happen again.

Associated Students, act in solidarity to encourage change, but not through the opposition of this law. 

The editorial board is comprised of Editor-in-Chief Paige Collins, Managing Editor Marissa Abruzzini and Opinion Editor Sarah Aitchison.