Arts & Humanities/Latino History Program

In the article by Keith Gilyard, he talks about a particular group of students who are involved in an arts program; which is later shut down due to a lack of funding. In my opinion there seems to be a trend in targeting humanities as the first to go because of fiscal cuts. "...The proposed closing of the after-school program is part of a wave of fiscal cuts involving the humanities in too many...", says Gilyard. Keith Gilyard and I both agree that courses like mathematics, science and technology are important for global business and economic growth, however, lets not always resolve financial issues by cutting classes that influence creative minds. The Mexican American Studies program is part of the Tuscon Unified School District, in which students have the opportunity to learn about ethnic and culture groups. The ethnic studies course was banned basically due to the absurd stand against such studies by Arizona politicians, who realize that these courses somehow "promote the overthrow of the government." There must be more to this ridiculous excuse to ban a course that graduated ninety-seven percent of students. Dolores  Huerta is believed to be the perpetrator of this misconception, "In her speech she examined a broad range of social and political issues, at one point claiming, "Republicans hate Latinos," says Gilyard. Both articles are relevant to unit #3 because they discuss changes in education that, in my opinion, had a negative effect on K-12 education. I would reverse these changes, encouraging the return of the arts program and the MAS program. They both seem to be successful programs and would ignore the heartless concerns politicians have on education.