Unz Loses It
The
following is simply a set of press releases released from various organizations
that show what Ron Unz really is like. He is no friend to minorities and
is certainly not looking for equity in education. Also, don't forget to go
to James Crawford's website and see more biting comments made by Unz in e-mails
to Mr. Crawford.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Darnell L. Williams
(617) 442-4519 x218
URBAN LEAGUE OF EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS
CONDEMNS RACIST STATEMENTS MADE BY RONALD UNZ
BOSTON, July 17, 2002 - As a leader of the African-American community and an
ally of other communities of color in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I
condemn in the strongest terms the racially provocative remarks made about
U.S. Secretary Rod Paige by Mr. Ronald Unz in a public e-mail this week.
In an article on July 17th, the Boston Globe reported the following:
"After US Education Secretary Rod Paige made remarks favoring bilingual
education, Unz shot back in an e-mail to journalists: ''Paige, a black former
football coach, is believed to have obtained his job largely due to George W.
Bush's intense support for `Affirmative Access,' and is widely regarded as
the dimmest member of the Bush Cabinet.'' When confronted about his
statement, according to the Globe, Unz "refused to back off his
remarks."
Mr. Unz should know that gratuitous racist statements like this are something
that we neither appreciate nor tolerate in 2002 in
Furthermore, we question whether a person who issues and then defends racial
innuendoes to the press about a U.S. Secretary of Education has a right to
take part in the debate over education policy in our state.
We believe that current legislative proposals on bilingual education reform
(more)
Urban League Condemns Unz Statements
Page 2
are preferable to the more severe plan proposed by Mr. Unz. But regardless
of our policy differences, there is never a justification for stooping to the
level of racial insult and disrespect that Mr. Unz directed at Secretary
Paige.
Mr. Unz discredits himself and risks discredit to his cause with this tone of
discourse. We trust that such provocative statements are also not welcome
in
other states in which Mr. Unz has advanced his cause. In the
tolerated. Mr. Unz owes an immediate apology to Secretary Paige and to all
the citizens of
Darnell L. Williams
President & CEO
Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts
Romney distances himself from 'English immersion' backer
By Associated Press, 7/17/2002 20:23
BOSTON (AP) Republican gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney distanced himself
from the comments of a California millionaire who is behind a proposal to
reform Massachusetts' bilingual education system.
Romney, who supports the ''English immersion'' program of businessman Ron
Unz, said through a spokesman Wednesday that Unz's critical comments of
U.S.
Education Secretary Rod Paige did not take away from his support for the
program.
''Mitt Romney's support for English immersion has nothing to do with Ron Unz
and everything to do with the failure of bilingual education in
thinks of President Bush or members of his Cabinet is totally
irrelevant.''
Unz has been criticized this week for saying Paige was appointed because he
is black. The White House says Paige was hired because he was the best
person for the job. Unz is behind a question headed for the
ballot in November that would require non-English speaking children to
learn
English more quickly than is currently required.
Unz criticized Paige after the education secretary said in
proposal similar to
learning should be decided by local school districts.
Unz's supporters say ''English immersion'' helps immigrant children
assimilate more quickly. All four Democratic gubernatorial candidates
oppose
his proposal. They say it is a simplistic answer to a complex educational
challenge.
Democrat Shannon O'Brien, the state treasurer, disagreed with Romney that
Unz's comments were irrelevant to
''Ron Unz has revealed his true colors,'' she said in a statement. ''The
people of
his agenda into our public schools.''
The Rev. Gregory Groover, minister of the
''This is a throwback to the worst of the old days of race-baiting with those
with whom one does not agree,'' he said.
This press release is from the LULAC chapter, Far West Region. It shows that Ron Unz does not hesitate to mask his complete ignorance about bilingual education by using ad hominem attacks against those that show even the slightest bit of support for bilingual education. It is very sad to consider especially when one realizes that this guy is pushing his brand of politics with the all mighty dollar and a slick propaganda machine.
League of United Latin American Citizens
PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: DENIS O'LEARY, Education Advisor, LULAC - Far West Region, (805)
815-4442
July 21, 2002
Ron Unz slurs another detractor
Ron Unz sent an e-mail on July 15, 2002 to a vast group of news media and
supporters in which he said Secretary of Education Rod Paige is “a black
former football coach, is believed to have obtained his job largely due to
George W. Bush's intense support for "Affirmative Access," and is
widely regarded as the dimmest member of the Bush Cabinet.”
Denis O’Leary, Education Advisor stated that “Mr. Unz has bullied his way to
education policy maker. He has professed success of what has become a failed
system to bring students to English fluency in one year.” O’Leary added,
“Mr. Unz has financed his way to credibility in the media and public.
Proclaiming resounding success in the face of utter failure in California and
Arizona. In the process he has slurred many, this is racism.”
California is entering its fifth year of Mr. Unz’s English for the Children
"success," and California is still not any closer to English fluency
than before. In fact, the same students whom Mr. Unz is celebrating are now
further behind than before English for the Children's logic took control. The
widening achievement gap appears in all grade levels in all subjects.
California's students are being left behind in academics, and they are not
becoming fluent in English.
Ron Unz’s most recent slur is not the first time that he showed his
intolerance.
Denis O’Leary
Education Advisor
League of United Latin American Citizens - Far West Region
+++++
Responses to Prop. 227 All Over the Map
Louis Sahagun
Los Angeles Times
"They are not only in the position of being sanctioned by the state
Department of Education," he said, "but their individual
administrators and teachers can be . . . sued."
Unz was referring to a provision of the initiative that says educators who
willfully violate the law can be held personally responsible.
"There is a real possibility that some administrators and teachers will
lose their homes and be forced into bankruptcy over this," he added.
"And I think the public might be sympathetic toward a parent who
sues."
+++++
Cause of Higher Calif. Scores Sore Point In Bilingual Ed. Debate
By Mary Ann Zehr
Education Week
But Mr. Unz, who referred to bilingual education advocates as "human
vampires" fighting to keep in place a system that has benefited them but
not students, discounts such arguments.
"They're talking complexity because the facts are on the other side,"
he said.
+++++
Mogul gets slammed for efforts vs. bilingual ed
Ed Hayward, Boston Herald
Roslindale mother Regla Gonzalez of the League of United Latin American Citizens
called the proposal a "racist" attack on the freedom of parents to
choose a bilingual program.
The outbursts followed the announcement by Unz - godfather of a referenda
movement that has so far won in California and Arizona - and local supporters
that they will start collecting signatures.
Unz fired back, calling the race card tactics of state politicians and Hispanic
activists "silly" and similar to the first wave of opposition his
forces faced in California, Arizona and Colorado, where another ballot
initiative is under way.
+++++
Letter from Ron Unz,
Dear Friends,
“The once-controversial Proposition 227, which inspired so much alarmist
rhetoric in 1997 and 1998, has now become a completely established part of
California's education landscape.... This underlying reality is even
acknowledged by the small and dwindling band of California's fanatic bilingual
education holdouts, who – much like those Japanese soldiers who continued to
fight the Second World War long after Sony and Toyota had conquered America in a
far different manner – refuse to acknowledge that their religious cult has
been unmasked as fraudulent and rejected by almost everyone except themselves.
One of the most energetic of these cult members is Jill Kerper Mora, an
intellectually unimpressive professor of bilingual education studies who lives
in the same general area where other cult members committed mass suicide in 1997
when their expected UFO failed to arrive in the tail of a comet. However,
instead of drinking poison, Prof. Mora chooses to write endless letters to the
editor....”
+++++
Ron Unz
Rocks Falling Up, National Review Online
“A few weeks ago, Americans witnessed the enormous devastation that a small
handful of fanatically committed individuals can wreak upon society. Perhaps it
is now time for ordinary Americans to be willing to take a stand against those
similarly tiny groups of educational terrorists in our midst, whose disastrous
policies are enforced upon us not by bombs or even by knives, but simply by
their high-pitched voices. Americans must remain silent no longer.”
+++++
Veering toward the gutter
Editorial, Rocky Mountain News
"The chief defender of bilingual education in Colorado," Unz wrote
recently in one of many e-mails he sends around the country to people interested
in his political activities, is "a Mr. Guilford Stanford, an Anglo-Irish
actor and self-proclaimed European Democratic Socialist, whose deep roots in
Denver's Performing Arts community have provided him with enormous insight into
the educational needs and wants of poor Mexican immigrant families."
+++++
Letter from Ron Unz
“Paige, a black former football coach, is believed to have obtained his job
largely due to George W. Bush's intense support for "Affirmative
Access," and is widely regarded as the dimmest member of the Bush
Cabinet.”
+++++
Bilingual-ed foe chides Unz's remarks
Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News
But Unz said Paige's race is relevant because blacks in general "have been
speaking English in the United States for probably 300 years" and have less
"personal connection" to the pros and cons of bilingual education.
+++++
League of United Latin American Citizens - Far West Region
P.O. Box 2443, Tucson, AZ 85702
Tel: 805-815-4442 Fax: 805-815-4442
Web: www.lulac.org E-Mail: denis@latinosonline.com