Grijalva to present “Illegal Again”

TUSD Governing Board president Adelita Grijlava will be joined by teacher Andrew Walanski, and KVOI radio show host Robin Hiller at the Network for Public Education (NPE) 2015 Annual Conference. The trio is scheduled to present Illegal Again; The Continuing Battle Over Ethnic Studies in the State of Arizona and the Tucson Unified School District, today.

The 2nd Annual NPE Conference is being held in Chicago, April 25-26. Featured speakers include Yong Zhao, Diane Ravitch, Lily Eskelson Garcia, Randi Weingarten and Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.

Hiller serves on the board of NPE. She is the Executive Director of Voices for Education, an organization she founded in 1998. She is the host of the State of Education paid programming show on KVOI.

Walanski, who is best known for his inappropriate appropriation of black culture, teaches at Cholla High School. It was his less-than-rigorous curriculum that caused concern this year with the Arizona Department of Education. However, under the leadership of newly-elected Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas, Walanski’s classes received a pass.

Currently TUSD offers Culturally Relevant classes based on Critical Race Theory. As a result, it is unclear exactly what the trio means by “illegal again.” Ironically, at the same time Grijalva is perpetuating the myth that the Mexican American Studies classes are illegal again, Jeff Bryant will be moderating, How To Effectively Debunk Myths In An Era Of Education Misinformation. See: Douglas finds TUSD Ethnic Studies class in compliance