Legal Commentary

AZ Moves Against Teachers With Accents

By Big Tent Democrat

A teacher with an accent:

Let me start out with my full disclosures: My parents immigrated to the United States in 1962. When my mother arrived, she spoke no English. My father spoke English, but was not perfectly fluent (to this day his English carries a heavy accent.) If Duncan Hunter had his way, I would be deported. My mother went to college in the United States and became a teacher. She speaks accented English. I am not impartial about what has been happening in Arizona. But I must ask this question: does the State of Arizona employ any attorneys?

The Arizona Department of Education recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English.

Let's leave the merited pejoratives aside. This is simply illegal. Someone in Arizona may want to review Title VII. And Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Laws. The geniuses running Arizona seem intent on bankrupting the state.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 30, 2010 (boomark / email).