A federal judge has rejected a request to reinstate an Arizona district’s contentious Mexican-American studies courses.
The request was filed last month by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund on behalf of the Latino plaintiffs in the Tucson Unified School District’s decades-old desegregation case.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge David Bury was backed by special master Willis D. Hawley, who oversees the district’s new plan to bring schools into racial balance.
Through 2009, the 52,000-student district operated under a federal court order to desegregate its schools. A subsequent plan for the district called for the expansion of Mexican-American studies.
The judge and Mr. Hawley agreed that the discontinuation of the classes in January does not violate the postunitary plan.
