CA - Radical Chicano Public School Saved Despite Low Test Scores

May 09, 2012
Judicial Watch

While a top Los Angeles public school is set to close for supposedly violating environmental laws, a low-performing campus with a radical Mexican separatist curriculum will remain open against the advice of district officials who say students aren’t getting a necessary fundamental education.

Academia Semillas del Pueblo (Seeds of the People Academy) is a controversial, taxpayer-funded school founded in 2001 by an America-bashing Chicano who claims the “white, American way will lead to destruction.” The curriculum was devised by a radical Mexican group that strives to return the American southwest to Mexico and the school’s charter emphasizes anti-Americanism, collective governance and Mexican culture as its three main focal points in the education of students. Instead of Old Glory, the campus flies a communist flag and teaches children the ancient Nahutal language of the Aztecs.

The principal and founder, Calexico-educated Marcos Aguilar, opposes racial integration and says Mexicans in the U.S. don’t want to go to white schools or drink from white water fountains. He blasts the landmark school desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education and claims that segregation and civil rights in the U.S. are all about white supremacy.

This is consistent with the preaching of Mecha, which stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan. The militant group was founded at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1969 with the goal of returning the American Southwest to Mexico because in Chicano folklore California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas are in fact Aztlan. This is the indoctrination that Academia Semillas del Pueblo’s 300 students undergo compliments of Tio Sam.

As unbelievable as it may seem that the U.S. is funding this school, it’s true. Back in 2006 Judicial Watch obtained California public records exposing this scandal (see JW’s special report). Taxpayers are actually financing a school where Mexican culture is promoted to the exclusion of American ideals and instruction in the English language doesn’t begin until fourth grade. The end result of these outrageous policies is that the Chicano school has the lowest rank possible in the California Department of Education’s Academic Performance Index.

So why hasn’t the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) taken action? A story in California’s largest newspaper seems to indicate that it’s not politically correct to shut the Chicano school down, despite its well-documented failures. The article reveals that the school board recently overruled senior administrators who recommend closing the perpetually low-performing campus. The school’s test scores dropped 92 points last year and just 22% of students are at grade level in math and 30% in English.

In the meantime, a top performing charter school in the district, the nation’s second largest with an enrollment of over 700,000, is set to close at the end of this academic year. Why? Because the facility that serves as its campus lost a court battle over compliance with environmental laws. Never mind that students at the science and technology school have some of the highest scores in the LAUSD.

Radical Chicano Public School Saved Despite Low Test Scores | Judicial Watch