Brown, Not White: School Integration and the Chicano Movement in Houston

10. The Most Racist Plan Yet

chapter 10 The Most Racist Plan Yet Prior to the start of the 1971–72 school year MAEC assessed the impact it had had on school officials since its founding and the challenges it faced in the coming year. The organization had exacted certain concessions from the school superintendent and the school board. The former, for instance, had agreed in principle on viewing Mexican Americans as an identifiable minority group. This recognition, in turn, had led to the expansion of bilingual education programs, the development of ethnic studies curricula, and the hiring of more Mexican American administrators, faculty, and staff. Because of MAEC’s involvement, local officials had begun to address the special linguistic and cultural needs of the Mexican American population in the schools. The district’s efforts to meet the Mexican American children’s special needs were reflected in its proposed budget for the coming school year, in proposals for federal funding developed by school officials, and in the staffing and curricular decisions made by the board. A proposal to the Emergency School Assistance Program (ESAP) for federal funding in 1971–72 asked for $9.5 million, of which $4.9 million was to be applied directly to the needs of Mexican Americans. This money would fund four new school programs benefiting Mexican-origin children. A significant amount of monies, approximately $1.6 million, was used to establish the 3-4-5 Club, a bilingual program for preschool children. The rest of the funds covered operating expenses for a variety of other programs, including a Spanishlanguage program for teachers ($70,000), the Mexican-American Student and Parent Involvement Project ($291,229), and a credit course in Mexican American history in grades ten through twelve ($33,000).1 Because of MAEC’s involvement, the district also expanded and strengthened a staff recruitment program and increased the number of Mexican American teachers and administrators. In the year before the boycott the district had four Mexican American principals and assistant principals. This number increased to six in 1970–71 and to thirteen the following year. The number of Mexican American teachers also increased from 1969 to 1971. The district had 181 Mexican American teachers in 1969– 70, 260 in 1970–71, and 308 in 1971–72. The number of teachers was still small because of a limited supply of Mexican American teachers and competition between school districts.2 Finally, in January, 1971, the superintendent hired Gonzalo Garza as one of six area superintendents. Garza was the first Mexican American in an important administrative position.3 MAEC had less success with the school board. Although some concessions were exacted from the board—e.g., MAEC encouraged the board to appeal the pairing decision to the courts and to include a few Mexican Americans in at least one desegregation committee—the board continued to operate on the basis of traditional black-white race relations. For integration purposes Mexican Americans were still viewed as members of the white race. Board members argued that they were legally bound to ignore Mexican Americans in the development of integration plans because of the court rulings. MAEC was convinced that the district could develop a more comprehensive desegregation plan that included Anglos. In late June of 1971 MAEC’s anxieties and frustrations increased when the HISD school board issued a new pairing plan and initiated busing for minority students but not Anglos. Although busing was needed and desired by Mexican American parents who could not afford to take their children to the new paired schools, many of them viewed it as another example of educational discrimination since the burden of desegregation and of busing was being borne solely by minorities. Failure to act equitably ushered in yet another round of militant activities. This chapter describes MAEC’s responses to the new pairing plan issued during the summer of 1971. hisd’s new pairing order On June 25, 1971, the HISD school board issued a desegregation plan that paired Mexican American children with blacks; no Anglos were included.4 160 The Struggle for Recognition, 1970–72 This plan was in response to the district court’s May 24, 1971, ruling ordering HISD to implement desegregation based on school pairing. Under this plan twenty-two elementary schools would be paired. Approximately 19,448 out of an anticipated elementary school enrollment of 142,481 for the entire district would be involved in...