PHOENIX — On Thursday, the union representing more than 22,000 Arizona public school educators sent a letter to the State Board of Education urging it to reject a proposal from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) that would eliminate state teaching standards designed to ensure equal access to education for Arizona’s children.
At its December 8 meeting, the State Board will consider ADE’s proposal (available here and here) to strike language related to diversity, equity, and inclusion from the Arizona Professional Teaching Standards and Structured English Immersion (SEI) Endorsement Course Frameworks.
In Thursday’s letter, Arizona Education Association President Marisol Garcia disputed ADE’s assertion that these rollbacks are needed to protect access to federal education funding and warned that the proposed changes would destabilize classrooms, contribute to the educator shortage, and undermine the well-being of Arizona students.
“Arizona’s Structured English Immersion (SEI) Endorsement Course Frameworks and Professional Teaching Standards are complex documents that should be adapted based on pedagogical best practices that support student learning and achievement. If the State Board of Education moves to adopt ADE’s proposal, the body risks a cascading race to the bottom in which educational standards are regularly opened and revised to align with shifts in political priorities instead of the direct needs of Arizona students,” Garcia wrote.
Garcia also warned that ADE’s proposal threatens the integrity of history and civic education in Arizona:
“…We are concerned about the potential chilling effect of adopting ADE’s proposal. At the highest levels of government, efforts to comply with the Trump administration’s DEI mandates have resulted in the removal of lessons on American heroes, including the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, and the suspension of programming designed to prevent sexual assault. We are concerned that efforts to eliminate DEI programming within Arizona public schools could have similar unintended consequences — robbing Arizona students of their ability to learn the history of their state and nation and preventing important programming designed to keep them safe.”
The full letter is available here.