No MAS

The Mexican-American studies or MAS program helps Latino students in several very beneficial ways. According to the text “ninety-seven percent of students participating in the program graduated high school, compared to 44 percent nationally, and 70 percent entered college, compared to 24 percent nationally.” This fact alone proves the benefit of such a program. The program is able to achieve such an impressive rate of success due to its ability to reach the students. It incorporates Latino authors that the students can relate to and care more about. It’s like a slap of reality saying, hey this guys just like me, and look he made it! He even wrote this book! If he can make it, then so can I! The students are learning the exact same skills and stories as they would outside the program, only now they are also learning these skills from sources that ring true to them. The text also proves the importance of students relating to their studies when it states “Students scored higher on the AIMS (Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards) test compared to other Hispanic students who did not take the classes.” Students who were not taught with material they could relate too. I see only two reasons such a great program could be seen as a threat by someone. Those two reasons are A) They are incredibly racist and the idea of helping a minority increase their education is an earth shaking tragedy among their social group or B) They somehow stand to receive a massive financial gain for their destruction of the program. Although B could potentially circle around to A and perhaps an incredibly racist individual is contributing the massive financial gain to the people responsible for the destruction of the program….Perhaps.