The Tucson Unified School District Governing Board this week agreed to expand the district's ethnic-studies offerings, reduce racial disparities in how discipline is meted out and embark on a new marketing campaign in an effort to persuade a federal judge to lift a 31-year-old order requiring racial balance in TUSD schools.
What's the crux of the plan?
The plan hinges largely on an attempt to gently integrate schools by allowing them to develop specialized niches. More choices in instruction would presumably stimulate the voluntary movement of students across the district.
Among other changes called for in the roughly 70-page document are stronger efforts to make the teaching staff more diverse and increased recruitment of minority students for more challenging coursework.
How much will it cost?
The district's finance staff had a hard time drawing up estimates but suggested it would cost about $1.5 million to provide seed money for the necessary training and capital improvements to launch the school-choice program. Transportation costs could jump from an anticipated $7.4 million this year to around $9.3 million. A marketing campaign would run roughly $500,000.
Meanwhile, it could cost $1.7 million to hire more teachers for gifted classes, if enrollment does expand. Ten percent increases in the Mexican-American Studies Department would bring it to $814,135, with African-American studies costing $1.2 million.
An internal compliance officer, plus support staff, would cost about $200,000. An external auditor would run $125,000.
What were the sticking points?
Board member Mark Stegeman was the sole holdout on the plan, which passed on a 4-1 vote Thursday debate.
Stegeman said he was concerned about strong language in two parts of the plan dealing with ethnic studies and with discipline.
While he was clear to distance himself from Mexican-American Studies critics who testified at several public hearings on the plan, he said he was concerned about the cost of expanding ethnic studies overall when so many teachers were given pink slips and schools will go without librarians and counselors.
The plan states that the offerings will be ""expanded as requested"" by students each year — language which, if interpreted literally, could be sweeping. He said he didn't think his colleagues would be comfortable making such promises in any other subject area.
And the fact that the plan dictates which schools will get new courses flies in the face of a shift toward greater control at each school site, he said.
Board member Adelita Grijalva, meanwhile, said she was concerned that the Mexican-American Studies Department wasn't expanding enough. She questioned why, given that the district is 60 percent Latino, the department's budget continues to be smaller than the African-American Studies Department.
Stegeman said his biggest concern was in the section calling for a decrease in student discipline referrals for black and Hispanic students starting with this school year. Stegeman said he was concerned that the language could lead to the unfair application of discipline.
Grijalva countered that there already is unfair application of discipline. Suspensions and expulsions are a contributing factor in juvenile detention, she said, noting minority youth are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system.
Their board counterpart, Bruce Burke, suggested that Stegeman was reading the language too technically, and that the board could apply common sense in fixing any unintended issues that arise.
What's next?
U.S. District Judge David C. Bury should have the plan by Monday. Pleadings are expected to be filed, particularly since the plan still has more than a dozen points on which the district and the black and Hispanic plaintiffs could not agree.
Bury has not indicated when a final ruling might be expected.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/biz-topheadlines/303180
Be sure to check out the rest of FIRE Coalition at:
http://www.FIRECoalition.comFIRE Coalition Blog:
http://www.FIRECoalition.com/blogFIRE Coailtion Projects:
http://www.FIRECoalition.com/projects
