Judge Upholds Law Barring Arizona Mexican Studies Program

The Arizona Republic (3/13, Collom) reports that Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and other state officials "have won a significant legal battle in a long-running saga over a controversial Tucson schools ethnic-studies program, with a federal judge ruling that a law designed to ban it is constitutional." Supporters of the law "said Monday that they feel vindicated in their efforts to ban what they deemed to be racially divisive courses in public schools." The paper quotes Horne calling the ruling "a victory for ensuring that public education is not held captive to radical, political elements and that students treat each other as individuals - not on the basis of the race they were born into." Teachers who had taught the program "had claimed the law infringed the constitutional rights of Hispanic teachers and students to free speech and equal protection."