All his children became doctors, Lawyers and teachers.

I'm betting the legislature got a legal stamp of approval before that Senate bill was presented, too.

It's been such a demoralizing and distressing couple of weeks, with legislation coming out of the states and DC that just make me feel sick.  Between the Papieren, bitte Arizona law, and the Democrats' biometric identity cards, assassination orders, forced ultrasounds, liability exemptions for docs who don't disclose fetal abnormalities, mental health exams for women seeking abortions, subpoenas issued with Eric Holder approval to the NYT journalist who disclosed the CIA's botched effort to infiltrate the Iranian nuclear program - a subpoena originally issued by the Bush DOJ - Obama gearing up to cut entitlements, partnering with the Pete Peterson Foundation - what the hell is happening?

Arizona has lost its mind, and other states are lining up to follow in Arizona's footsteps.

And all we get from Obama is a paternal assurance that he will be keeping an eye on things?  Really?

"Teachers should speak good grammar because kids pick up what they hear," said Johanna Haver, a proponent of English-language immersion who serves as an adviser to Arizona educators. "Where you draw the line is debatable."

It was later on in life as an adult that I figured it out.  My mother was an immigrant. English was something she learned when she went to school.  Here parents died young, having never learned the language.   She was pulled out of school in the sixth grade to work in a textile factory.  Her abusive b-i-l who took over the family did not believe girls needed school.

In my years at college, my dad sent all the letters to me.  But one day in my junior year, I got a letter from my Mom.  Only two sentence.   Dear J, here is some spending money.   Don't show this note to anyone.  I love you.  Mom.

The geniuses running Arizona seem intent on bankrupting the state.

this is by accident? the state legislature (owned and operated by the mining interests) passes all kinds of goofy, overtly unconstitutional twaddle, which the state AG is then obligated to defend. it costs millions to defend these laws, plus the cost of judgements. soon, the state is bankrupt, goes to the auction block, and the mining companies pick it up for a song.

what was once public lands become the toxic waste dumping grounds for the mining industry. the diamondbacks change their name to the "radiumbacks", and no one worries about illegal immigrants, because they've all left for northern mexico, where it's safer.

Arizona's enforcement of fluency standards is based on an interpretation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That law states that for a school to receive federal funds, students learning English must be instructed by teachers fluent in the language. Defining fluency is left to each state, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education said.

An employment decision based on foreign accent does not violate Title VII if an individual's accent materially interferes with the ability to perform job duties. This assessment depends upon the specific duties of the position in question and the extent to which the individual's accent affects his or her ability to perform job duties. Employers should distinguish between a merely discernible foreign accent and one that interferes with communication skills necessary to perform job duties.  Generally, an employer may only base an employment decision on accent if effective oral communication in English is required to perform job duties and the individual's foreign accent materially interferes with his or her ability to communicate orally in English. Positions for which effective oral communication in English may be required include teaching, customer service, and telemarketing. Even for these positions, an employer must still determine whether the particular individual's accent interferes with the ability to perform job duties. The examples below illustrate how to apply these principles.

The manual cites to: "Fragante v. City & County of Honolulu, 888 F.2d 591, 597-98 (9th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1081 (1990), the court found that the employer lawfully refused to hire an individual with a pronounced Filipino accent for a position requiring constant phone communication with the public. The record revealed that Fragante's pronounced Filipino accent would make him difficult to understand over the telephone."

I think the rule's going to be upheld as facially neutral, AZ will target spanish-speaking English teachers, nobody will have the capability to sue merely for being transferred, eventually the policy will be applied to all teachers, eventually it will expand across all AZ, TX, NM, etc. schools, eventually it will expand to poor inner-city schools, and eventually there will be a "standard english" policy/exception in the case law for teachers, profs, etc. It's going to really, really suck in about 15-20 years.

The problem is, the policy was probably written by a very clever lawyer who really gets Title VII law.  There are just so many problems unique to employment law here that if you don't know it, you're not going to understand the cleverness of what was done.

First and foremost, those teachers aren't being fired, they're just being transferred to other classes. And that's likely not enough for them to sue on as it's not going to be an "adverse employment action", meaning demotion, termination, loss of pay, loss of seniority, things like that.

As to the accent (Spanish or American regional or whatever), if it's so strong as to make the teacher totally unintelligible then I don't think that teacher is really well suited for the job.  Otherwise, I don't see why it's any business of the state and it would obviously pointlessly disqualify many highly capable teachers such as, for example, Henry Kissinger (teaching international relations).

Clearly, the view of the commentators on this post is this purge of teachers is just pretextual and driven by a nasty strain of nativism.  If that's the case, then I condemn it totally but if not, then I think it has merit in certain circumstances.

Sorry, the Obama administration is doing something about Arizona. I just came across this news article:

"Obama calls the Arizona law misguided. "If you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you're going to get harassed - that's something that could potentially happen. That's not the right way to go," he said this week."

It is a test in English fluency -- especially spoken English -- required by many U.S. campuses for incoming graduate students applying for teaching assistantships in this country.

So will teachers who have a heavy Southern accent going to be removed?  What about New England accents?  Or Brooklyn?  Or Hawaiian?  Or Texan?  Or Alaskan (you betcha')?  Or Minnesotan?