Resolution on Opposition to SB 1128 & HB 1398

WHEREAS, 84 years ago, the founders of the League of Latin American Citizens, (LULAC) joined together to establish an organization that would become the largest, oldest and successful Hispanic civil rights and service organization in the United States, and

WHEREAS, as a result of the civil rights movement and the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, federally funded institutions of education are required to not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin, and

WHEREAS, LULAC has worked for many years to eliminate racial discrimination of all minorities and supports equal access to education that included curriculum that acknowledges, analyzes, and promotes gender studies, ethnic studies, critical race theory, and analysis of colonization from multiple perspectives, and

WHEREAS, Texas Senator Dan Patrick has sponsored Senate Bill 1128 and State Representative Giovanni Capriglione House Bill 1938, attacking history curriculum in public institutions of higher education, and

WHEREAS, according to Senator Dan Patrick, the sponsor of SB 1128, and that at the recommendation of the report by the National Association of Scholars, history courses focusing on race, class and/or gender will no longer fulfill the state mandated six hours of U.S. History in the core curriculum (i.e. Mexican American History, African American History, Women’s History, Native American History, LGBT History, and Jewish American History), and

WHEREAS, SB 1128 and HB 1938 undermine the process made in institutions of education since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and denies students the opportunity to study the depth and breadth of the diverse U.S. experience at the university level. Now,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, LULAC District IV opposes Senate Bill 1128 sponsored by Senator Dan Patrick and HB 1938 sponsored by Representative Giovanni Capriglione because it paves the way for the elimination of Mexican American Studies and other ethnic studies and Interdisciplinary programs such as African American Studies and Women and Gender Studies.

Approved this 22nd day of June 2013.

Margaret Moran
LULAC National President