The termination of the Bilingual Education Department at CSU-Sacarmento

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 The long marchthrough the institutions has ended for the Bilingual /Multicultural faculty andstudents at CSU Sacramento.  OnSat, May 19, the Bilingual/Multicultural Education Department at CSU-Sacramentograduated its final class.  Amovement that began in the  MexicanAmerican Education Project of 1969-1974 came to a close.  See history here:https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/chicano-mexican-american-digital-history-project/mexican-american-education-project I retired in2008 and had little role to play in the decision to abandon this  civil rights project.  In the 15 year history of thedepartment we graduated thousands of new bilingual teachers and educationalleaders who, under the prior hegemonic system, would have been sorted out.  These graduates have gone into teachingand schools and influenced thousands of students.   Under the newsystem, they will again often be discarded. The drop out rate for Chicanostudents in California  remains near 50%. We know how to reverse this, but politicians and institutions are unwilling to dedicated the resources to this end. The students are still there.  The students of California still need bilingual and multiculturalteachers.   Students who aredescendents of Mexican and Chicano families now make up almost 48% of publicschool students. There were budget cuts, but a united faculty could haveretained the department if they so chose. Instead, a new generation of faculty chose to abandon this institutionalbase that had been created by their predecessors. For more history see; https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/chicano-mexican-american-digital-history-project/history-of-bilingual-education-dept-at-sac-state"An injury to one is an injury to all."This post dedicated to the memory of Hugo Chacon and Dr. TomCarter.