Former Arizona public schools chief leaves office with demand to pull rock song from class

PHOENIX — In his last official acts as chief of public school instruction in Arizona, John Huppenthal took on rock and roll.

In a notice of noncompliance, Huppenthal wrote the Tucson Unified School District last week that using Rage Against the Machine’s “Take Back the Power” and KRS-One’s “Introduction to Hip-Hop” essay in classes violated state law.

District superintendent H.T. Sanchez is supposed to comply by early March or face the risk of losing funding. Sanchez said the courses are being taught at three high schools but will expand to seven next school year.

Huppenthal, who lost his re-election bid in the Republican primary, said the Mexican-American history class that uses the song in coursework, “illegally” promoted “ethnic solidarity and the overthrow of the U.S. government.”

The class was one that replaced the ethnic studies program banned from Tucson schools.

His successor, Diane Douglas, took the oath of office Monday and scheduled to meet with Sanchez this week.

“@Jakov_10: AZ school under fire for teaching about hip-hop, RATM lyrics http://t.co/q2vkonR0bC” It's only dangerous if u teach it right

— Tom Morello (@tmorello) January 3, 2015

“What these classes are designed to do is talk about the multiple points of view on history, because there is never just one rendition of history. There are multiple renditions of history,” Sanchez said. “They prepare students for what they’ll encounter at the university level.”

Huppenthal spent the last few months in office trying to live down a brouhaha surrounding the revelation that he had anonymously posted blogs that many viewed as racist.

He apologized in June but negative publicity followed him for weeks leading up to the August primaries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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