When Citizens for Educational Excellence was formed, the main priority was to work towards quality in education at various levels, which includes local school boards, community college boards, and country supervisors of schools; these are all elected positions that are determined by the citizens.

All that is required in the Tucson Unified School District level is to win 2 out of the 3 seats open this year to regain our majority on the board and to end this recent onslaught of anti-Latino and anti-Union votes.

A recall of the 4th board member, Michael Hicks, was also started in March 2012 and explored as another way to bring change to Tucson's largest school board. Since that time many pivotal changes have occurred to bring about more permanent change in a more efficient manner.

Last week it was made public that both the Department of Justice and the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights would begin a thorough investigation into TUSD's treatment of Latinos. At multiple public forums this past week the community came out strong and united and in force and the federal government was there taking lots of notes and listening.

It is clear that huge changes are coming to our district in a way that is more important than just political with elections, but deep changes dealing with basic issues of fair treatment, racism, segregation, and the future of education in Tucson, Arizona, and the United States.

The earliest time the recall election would have occurred would have been March of 2013, but with the DOJ and OCR permanent change is available more immediately, and change is imminent, especially with the Tashima ruling on the constitutionality of HB2281 expected any day now.

In order to comply fully with the federal investigations into Tucson Unified School District, including filing further complaints to documents the district's treatment of Latinos, Citizens for Educational Excellence will be officially ending the Recall of Michael Hicks and encourages all its members, and all parents and students in the district to comply fully with federal investigators.

Thank you everyone for your time and effort, and we now have the nation's attention, they have sent in federal investigators, and progress will come to TUSD!

For upcoming events that will be hosted by Citizens for Educational Excellence please stay tuned to our website at http://www.CitizensForEducationalExcellence.org

via AlterNet:

At tonight’s Tucson Unified School District governing meeting, nationally disgraced board member Michael Hicks has a wonderful opportunity to provide a teaching moment for the Old Pueblo: He can apologize for his racist antics to the students, parents and community members in Tucson’s largest school district and then he can resign.

In an embarrassing performance on the Daily Show last night, Hicks reminded the nation of the blatantly racist and bizarre “misthinking” behind the ban on Tucson’s academically successful Mexican American Studies Program. While Hicks’ downright racist buffoonery might be entertaining–and certainly derails the spotlight from the FBI’s investigation of Attorney General Tom Horne or his extremist side-kick, Tea Party state superintendent of schools John Huppenthal–it should also move Tucson’s elected leadership to stand up and bring an end to the school board member’s continual “pattern of discrimination” and disastrous reign over the education and lives of children in Tucson’s largest school district.

Despite a vibrant recall campaign to remove him from office as a “detriment to the community,” Hicks is truly his own worst enemy.

He revels in proclaiming his own “simple mind.”

In a bizarre Facebook rant, Hicks unleashed his challenged literacy skills in response to the recall campaign.

At school board meetings, he openly taunts students, parents and union members.

Earlier this spring, his comparison of the Mexican American Studies faculty at the University of Arizona to Penn State’s child sex scandal outraged educators and community members in Tucson’s college town.

At the same time, Hicks’s erroneous framing of college-bound Mexican American Studies students as violent and out of control brought city-wide calls for his resignation.

Bottom line: His antics are endless and unacceptable for any functioning and dedicated school board.

Hicks should resign tonight. Or the school board–and Superintendent John Pedicone–should openly join the recall campaign to rid the district of this embarrassment once and for all.

via Tucson Weekly:

The website Latino Rebels has an emailed response from Michael Hicks regarding his extremely embarrassing appearance on last night's episode of The Daily Show. A note for Mr. Hicks: if you didn't want to have your idiotic, ill-informed comments amplified to a national audience, don't do an interview with The Daily Show.

I would actually argue that they did "inform" rather than "amuse," because just the line where you said you preferred to get your information from hearsay instead of actually visiting the classes says everything anyone needs to know about your leadership on the school board. In fact, I've been somewhat sympathetic to the position that John Huppenthal and Tom Horne put the TUSD School Board in by seemingly forcing their hand economically. This segment basically changed my mind.

I realize we generally get what we pay for with school board members, but it would be nice to have someone who cares enough about his job to actually investigate a situation for himself before running his mouth off with baseless opinions. Clearly, we're not getting that from Michael Hicks.

With all due respect, the Daily Show is a money making satirical show. It is not a news show. They do not present the complete remarks of their guests. They slice and dice footage to serve their need to entertain.

I went on this show to talk about the Mexican American Studies (MAS) classes. I was mislead by the "reporter" and was told that they were interested in a real interview. It was nothing of the sort.

It is unfortunate that the Daily Show opted to amuse rather than inform.

And for the record, you can see where they spliced my comments in several areas during this segment. I can assure you that my statements were taken out of context Many of my answers were altered to suit their agenda.

What I find more troubling is that there are those who will believe that what they saw on the Daily Show is accurate and complete news.

These individuals will then most likely base their judgments on inaccurate information designed specifically to support the view of Daily Show producers.

Real children were being exploited, and the producers of the Daily Show chose to ignore that.

From the LA Times:

After that stint on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” the Tucson Unified school board is probably wishing it had hired a media consultant before trying to explain its position on the district’s controversial Mexican American Studies program. 

Normally, when people are featured on a television show, they call family and friends and let them know the time and channel. That might not be the case for board member Michael Hicks, who appeared in a segment about the ethnic studies controversy. 

The Tucson school board voted to end the program after Arizona's education chief had ruled the district in violation of a controversial state law banning classes designed for a particular ethnic group or that "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government."

Defenders of the Mexican American Studies program have said it does no such thing. Some board members said they voted to discontinue the program under duress because the legislation allowed the state to withhold funding from the district unless it complied with the law.

The law and the board's vote -- and protests by Latino students -- have prompted fiery discussions in Tucson and across the state. Into that atmosphere stepped Hicks when he explained his vote on "The Daily Show."

"My concern was a lot of the radical ideas that they were teaching in these classes," Hicks is quoted as saying.

"Telling these kids that this is their land, the whites took it over and the only way to get out from beneath the gringo — which is the white man — is by bloodshed."

The segment quotes him as saying he has never gone to any of the classrooms and based his opinions on "hearsay."

He apparently digs himself in deeper when he discussed why African American studies and Asian Pacific American studies won’t be affected by the ban.

The African American Studies program is "not teaching the resentment of a race or class of people," he said.

Though, when Hicks was asked to envision Madrigal as a black student -- how would Hicks teach him about slavery without creating resentment toward white people? "Slavery was a ... slavery was a ..." Hicks stammers.

"The white man did bring over the Africans... " he trailed off, allowing Madrigal to deliver another jab: "What kind of jobs did we do?"

"The jobs you guys did were slavery jobs,” Hicks answered uncomfortably.

“You know, Rosa Clark did not take a gun and go onto a bus and hold up everybody,” Hicks later added, referring to civil rights activist Rosa Parks.

Even before Hicks' comments, the controversy swirling around the program showed no signs of abating. Two students have sued to challenge the law and the case is making its way through federal court.

Hicks didn’t respond to phone calls, but released a statement saying he was unaware the show was satirical in manner.

"They slice and dice footage to serve their need to entertain," he wrote. "I can assure you that my statements were taken out of context."

"Real children were being exploited, and the producers of 'The Daily Show' chose to ignore that."

In Tucson, this is just another blow to the bruise left by the law’s controversy.

"Hicks has, unfortunately, demonstrated his lack of knowledge about the MAS program, about the basics of American history and, most of all, his lack of judgment," the Arizona Daily Star wrote in an editorial Wednesday.

The school district released a statement saying Hicks, as a public official, "was speaking as an individual. His comments do not represent the TUSD governing board or the school district."