Response from Andrew LeFevre, ADE March 26, 2012

Full Text of Monday March 26, 2012 Email from Andrew Lefevre, Arizona Department of Instruction to Tupac Enrique Acosta, TONATIERRA

From: LeFevre, Andrew Andrew.LeFevre@azed.gov

To: Tupac Enrique <chantlaca@tonatierra.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 12:19 PM

Subject: RE: Comuniqué to Arizona Department of Public Instruction J. Huppenthal 

Mr. Acosta:

Per our discussion while you were at ADE, I wanted to contact you regarding your request to meet with the Superintendent regarding the United Nations report “Preliminary Study on the Impact of Doctrine Discovery” and the inclusion of doctrine discovery in Arizona’s state standards and curriculum.

By what criteria is the designation of "white" pupils determined?

The Superintendent appreciates you bringing this issue to his attention and will review the information you provided and then bring it to the attention of the State Legislature and the State Board of Education for their consideration.  As we discussed last Friday, the Arizona Department of Education does not set the curriculum standards for the state, that authority is reserved for the legislature and State Board.  If those bodies determine that this should be included in the state standards, then ADE will work to ensure compliance with their directives.

Again, we greatly appreciate you bringing these issues to the Superintendent’s attention. At this time he is unavailable to meet with you, but recommends that you attempt to have your concerns addressed with members of the legislature and State Board of Education. If you have other issues that you would like him to review, please forward those to his attention. 

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Andy

--

Andrew T. LeFevre

Director of Public Relations

Office of Communications & Innovation

Arizona Department of Education

602-364-2425

602-542-5072 (press line) 

andrew.lefevre@azed.gov

LINK:

March 16, 2012 Comuniqué to Arizona Superintendent of Instruction J. Huppenthal

In Imuh Tenamaztle

"Therefore, we as Nican Tlacah, Indigenous Peoples of Anahuac who reside in the territories of the O’otham Nations also known as the State of Arizona now present the following demands and recommendations in pursuit of realizing the intent of this letter:

In light of the fact that there is absolutely NO REFERENCE in the current Arizona State Curriculum Standards for a track of study on the relevance of the Doctrine of Discovery in terms of Social Studies, History or Public Policy:

We demand that the Preliminary Study on the Doctrine of Discovery, submitted to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues be integrated into the Social Studies Curriculum standards immediately for implementation across the spectrum of services delivered by the Arizona Department of Education at all levels across the state with no exceptions."