|
|
NAME has just issued the following Position Paper on the recent anti-immigration policies and laws…
The National Association for Multicultural Education expresses its deep opposition to recently passed state laws designed to drive out undocumented immigrants. We call for repeal of laws that punish immigrant children and their families, and for a campaign to educate U.S. citizens about the rights and contributions of immigrants, and about U.S. policies that have prompted people to come to the U.S. seeking work.
Georgia’s HB87, enacted in April 2011, requires private employers to verify the immigration status of employees, and to hire only documented residents. Alabama’s HB56, enacted in June 2011, took Georgia’s law several steps further. It prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving any public benefits at either the state or local level. It requires every P-12 public school to report the immigration status of every student and every student’s parents, although it does not prohibit school attendance of undocumented students. Further, HB56 bars undocumented immigrants from attending public colleges or universities. Additional requirements are designed to discourage undocumented immigrants from being in Alabama. Among other things, in addition to prohibiting hiring undocumented immigrants, the law requires police to attempt to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop, and it prohibits landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants.
The Alabama law has created a hostile climate for Latino students, whether documented or not. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which implemented a hotline for people concerned about the law, reports between September and mid-November, receiving nearly 4,000 calls from terrified Latino immigrants – undocumented and documented alike. Children who are citizens are afraid to go to school, fearing their parents will be deported. Latino students (documented or not) are being bullied by classmates, and harassed by teachers who question their immigration status. Undocumented older students who came to the U.S. as very young children worry that they will not be able to continue their education regardless of the merits of their academic record. No one should have to fear going to school on the basis of identity, but this law is creating such fear.
We are also concerned that the laws in both states rest on inaccurate but largely uncorrected assumptions: 1) that undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes (at the very least, all immigrants pay sales tax on purchases in the U.S.); 2) that they contribute nothing (an assumption that ignores immigrant labor for very low wages); and 3) that the U.S. bears no complicity in the reasons why people are undergo major hardship to find work in the U.S. What most U.S. citizens do not realize is that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has enabled the U.S. to flood Mexico with cheap, subsidized produce that has shut down many Mexican farms and displaced millions of rural Mexican farmers, while turning profits for large agricultural corporations.
Because of the hostile education climate these laws create, and the inaccurate assumptions on which many people support them, we call for their repeal, and for an education campaign about the roots of immigration.
Click here to download NAME’s Position Paper on Anti-Immigration Policies
NAME Statement of Solidarity with OccupyChicago and the Global Occupy Movement
Approved by the NAME Board of Directors on October 31, 2011.
We are the public.
We are workers.
We are the 99%!
We join with the people here in Chicago and in over 1600 cities across the nation and the world who are mobilizing in plazas, parks, neighborhoods, streets, classrooms, and squares to create a new, more energized public in opposition to oligarchy and to the unequal distribution of wealth and power. The loss of jobs, healthcare, and homes, the frontal assault on unions and the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively, the resources wasted by a permanent war, the concerted attacks on public education and scapegoating of educators, the unjust reality of mass incarceration and mass deportations, and the destruction of environments have brought us to this crisis. We recognize that the negative effects of these linked and overlapping crises disproportionately impact people of color, women, the very young and the elderly, queer people, and our poor brothers and sisters. We join with people everywhere who are reclaiming common rights to public resources. We join in the call against privatization and for a democratic re-awakening.
As multicultural educators, we oppose the ethnocentric vision of the current paradigm of reform, the dismantling of public education, rising tuition and lack of access, unsustainable student debt, and the assault on every dimension of education. As scholars, practitioners, artists, and community activists, our work addresses the problems and challenges society faces, and makes recommendations based on evidence and argument that we hope will spark open and ongoing debate. We draw inspiration from earlier social movements that have challenged war and racism, the unequal distribution of power, wealth, and authority, and fought for peace and justice, joy and balance. Today’s movements continue this necessary work. The uprisings compel us to lift our voices and dedicate our efforts to realizing the democratic aspirations for a more peaceful, equitable, just, and habitable world.
We are the 99%!
The NAME Board calls for members to submit nominations from the membership for appointment to the NAME Board of Directors. If you know someone who (or if you) would like to serve NAME in an office listed below, please forward the completed nomination form along with a biographical resume and a description of his/her qualifications for the office sought, involvement in multicultural education, and involvement in NAME. The description may be prepared by the nominator or nominee and should not exceed 50 words. Please verify nomination with nominee. To be considered, all nominations for appointment MUST be emailed no later than Sunday, December 4th, 2011.
OFFICES OPEN FOR NOMINATIONS:
Regional Directors: The following 2 Regional Positions are open for Nominations: Regions 4 & 6
Regional Directors: Serve a term of three years. Each Regional Director shall: (1) conduct outreach throughout the region and support chapter development; (2) assist chapters in organizing and carrying out their responsibilities; (3) report on regional activities at meetings of the Board of Directors; (4) contribute articles on regional activities for the newsletter; (5) establish an advisory committee of representatives from chapters in the region; (6) submit an annual report on the region’s financial and program activities; (7) collect and review the financial and program reports from the chapters in the regions; and (8) convene a regional meeting during the annual conference
Area of responsibility for the open regions:
Region 4: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee
Region 6: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
To be considered, all nominations must be emailed on or before DECEMBER 4, 2011. Appointments will be announced at the public board meeting in January, 2012.
CLICK HERE to Download the NAME_Board NOMINATION FORM 2011
Mark your calendars to learn with NAME in your local community
EARLY NOTICE! MARK YOUR CALENDARS
for
The 16th Annual Connecticut
SUMMER INSTITUTE:
DEVELOPING MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM
August 17 through 19th, 2011
Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
Ledyard, CT
Presenters: Bill Howe
Kimberly Traverso, Jack Hasegawa, Kimberley Shockley, and
Maria Pacheco
Cost: $195 for CT Residents/$295 for Out-of-State Residents
Deadline for Registration: July 29, 2011
Click here to download DMC Summer Institute flier
MARK YOUR CALENDARS for the
16th Annual
New England Conference on Multicultural Education
Tuesday, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011
8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Central Connecticut State University
New Britain CT
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr. JAMES A. BANKS
 James A. Bank, Diversity Studies, University of Seattle
THIS YEAR’s NECME Conference IS FREE to all attendees!
Visit the web site: www.necme.org for additional information
The Bay Area Paul Robeson Centennial Committee (Oakland, CA) is co-sponsoring a curriculum video/essay contest with the National Association for Multicultural Education. Deadline for submissions: Midnight, March 18, 2012.
Paul Robeson was the winner of letters in 15 sports, an anti-fascist organizer during World War II, a beloved singer and actor, an internationalist, and a courageous fighter for the rights of African-Americans. Many adults have learned history by following the intersection of his life with the events in which he participated. But many students have not had that opportunity because his life has not been included in traditional U.S. history texts.
To enter the contest:
- Create and video an original lesson that uses Paul Robeson’s experiences and talents within the lesson content
- Submit the video, a detailed written plan, and student evaluations of the lesson to The Bay Area Robeson Committee by midnight March 18, 2012. Send it to: Bay Area Paul Robeson Centennial Committee, P.O. Box 3628, Oakland, Ca. 94609-0628
- A panel of educators and others, including a representative from NAME (the National Association of Multicultural Education), will judge the lessons and present two awards – one for $1000 and the other for $500. The lesson plans will then be distributed online with credit to their creators.
(Teachers should follow their school’s policies with regard to filming students. The videos will be made available on line.)
In response to Seattle Public Schools delaying full implementation of its plan to serve secondary bilingual immigrant students, NAME President Christine Sleeter has released a statement calling upon the district to move forward without delay. President Sleeter references Seattle PS’ long history as a leader in developing innovative approaches to serving its multicultural/multilingual populations. The current delay in implementation of the approved and funded plan not only puts the district in violation of federal policy and case law, but also negatively impacts the state’s economic and social development.
Here is the full Press Release:
NEWS
National Association for Multicultural Education
Dr. Christine Sleeter President
For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 3, 2011
Nation’s Foremost Multicultural Education Organization (NAME) urges Seattle Public Schools to Keep its Commitment to Bilingual Immigrant Students.
(Washington, DC) It has come to our attention that Seattle Public Schools is continuing to delay serving its immigrant students. The National Organization for Multicultural Education calls on Seattle Public Schools to move forward with its adopted plan to serve this significant student population.
The district has already developed a high quality plan to serve its immigrant bilingual students. That plan would not only serve them well, but also put Seattle in compliance with federal policy embodied in the court decision Castan?eda v. Pickard (1981), which clarified school district legal obligations under the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision Lau v. Nichols.
We believe that Seattle has the potential to serve as a high quality model for serving culturally and linguistically diverse students. Many years ago, Seattle Public Schools was noted for its voluntary desegregation plan at a time when many other school districts around the nation were having to go through litigation to desegregate their schools. Seattle also created one of the nation’s first multicultural curricula to facilitate its desegregation plan, working with Ethnic Heritage Act funds. At present, Seattle has approved a well-researched plan for a school to serve its immigrant students at the secondary level excellently. The district also has funds that had been raised and allocated to implement that plan, as well as an audit by the Council for Great City Schools that underscores the tremendous need for the planned school. To delay implementation of such a program is to deny immigrant students the education to which they are legally entitled, and to fail to live up to the potential that Seattle Public Schools has demonstrated in the past.
We should point out that not only would it mean following the law to adhere to the approved plan for its secondary level immigrant bilingual students, but in the long run, doing so would also contribute to the economic and social development of the state. When students cannot complete their education, many leave school and later become an economic burden. In contrast, as research shows, developmental bilingual education programs are correlated with the strongest academic outcomes for English Language Learning students, including both academic achievement and retention/graduation. When students are offered an education program that enables them to complete high school and possibly go on for further education, they are able to become the productive and capable citizens that the city, the state, and the nation need.
Because education is so critical to the lives of young people, and so important to the development of this nation, we call on Seattle Public Schools to live up to its commitment to its immigrant students and move forward with its adopted plan, without delay.
CLICK HERE TO Download the NAME Press release, Seattle immigrant students
In honor of NAME’s 20th Anniversary Conference,
you can enjoy interviews with
NAME Founder Rose Duhon-Sells
NAME President Christine Sleeter, and
NAME Scholar Sonia Nieto.
The interviews were conducted by Karen Dade and can be found at
www.blogtalkradio.com/real-life
 In response to the bill signed by Governor of Arizona on May 11, 2010 banning ethnic studies in the public schools of Arizona, NAME has issued a press release expressing the organization’s outrage that the bill passed. NAME believes the bill flies in the face of research on textbooks and multicultural curricula, research on U.S. history, and the track record of Tucson’s Mexican American/Raza Studies department to successfully educate Mexican American students.
The bill presumes that the standard curriculum is not biased and represents no ethnic point of view. However, those who study race/ethnicity point out that white people are also ethnic, making that presumption incorrect. . . . By attacking the work of the Mexican American/Raza Studies department in Tucson, the bill ignores the fact that its work has been substantially improving the academic achievement and graduation rates of Chicano/a students. . . . For these reasons, we condemn this new law. Further, because of the strong integrity of the work of the Mexican American/Raza Studies department in Tucson, and its proven track record successfully education Chicano/a students, we will be featuring its former director, Dr. Augustine Romero, as a keynote speaker at our Annual Conference, which will be held November 4-6, 2010 in Las Vegas.
Members of NAME and supporters of ethnic studies programs are encouraged to download the complete press release for their continuing advocacy and educational efforts.
Click to download the complete NAME Press release on Arizona’s policy against ethnic studies.
For additional information contact Rose Duhon-Sells: roseduhonsells@suddenlink.net
Phone: 504.286.1760/504.288.3118
For twenty years, the National Association for Multicultural Education has been a productive network and think-tank of leading social justice and multicultural educators from across all levels and categories of education. NAME has served its members by incorporating every aspect of education and all spheres of diversity into its inclusive, activist definition of multicultural education. This expanded forum facilitates our ability to form coalitions, leverage resources and develop our professional capacities to advocate and educate
for excellence and equity for all in our schools and society.
Joining NAME and participating in NAME events provides access to a rich professional network, opportunities to interact with noted scholars and researchers, exposure to cutting-edge work, and the support of the extended NAME collegial family.
|
|
