Impetus For Arizona Ethnic Studies Bill Explained

Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (5/25) that Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has "signed into law" a bill targeting ethic studies that "had been pushed" by Tom Horne, Arizona's longtime secretary of education, "who took a disliking" to an ethnic studies program in the Tucson Unified School District several years ago. According to Strauss, "Historians and educators can argue the importance or lack thereof of such studies, and the merits and demerits of particular programs. ... I find [Horne's] motivations revealing, and read into" an "open letter that Horne wrote in 2007 explaining why he decided to target the program" a "personal dislike that he turned into a political crusade and selectively chose and wrongly interpreted some material to make his case." Strauss goes on to post the letter from Horne, dated June 11, 2007.