PHOENIX (AP) – The former leader of Arizona’s public schools defended his yearslong battle to end a popular Mexican-American history program, testifying Tuesday that he was troubled by what he described as radical instructors teaching students to be disruptive but insisting he targeted all ethnic studies programs equally.
Lawmakers dismantled the programs in a measure that passed in 2010, the same year Arizona approved its landmark immigration law known as SB1070. Students in the Tucson Unified School District, which offered the Mexican-American course, launched protests and then sued, saying the law was too broad and infringed on their First Amendment rights.
The courts have upheld most of the law but are determining whether it was enacted with the intent to be discriminatory.
Horne, a Republican, testified at trial Tuesday that his battle against the program began in part after he visited a Tucson high school to watch an aide rebut prior statements by guest speaker Dolores Huerta, a well-known national labor and civil rights activist, that Republicans “hate Latinos.”
Some students taped their mouths and turned their back to Horne’s aide, later walking out of the event with their fists in the air, “which is a pretty extremist thing to do,” he said.