Arizona To Teachers: Have An Accent? Then Don't Teach English

As if Arizona didn't have enough problems...

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Arizona Department of Education has begun telling its schools to remove teachers with "heavily accented or ungrammatical" English from classes where students are still learning the language.

This new revelation comes on the heels of controversy over Arizona's new immigration law, which requires law enforcement officers to demand the papers of anyone they reasonably suspect is in the country illegally.

From the Journal:

State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly. But some school principals and administrators say the department is imposing arbitrary fluency standards that could undermine students by thinning the ranks of experienced educators.

And you have to wonder if some of the proponents of these new rules are practicing what they preach:

"Teachers should speak good grammar because kids pick up what they hear," said Johanna Haver, a proponent of English-language immersion who serves as an adviser to Arizona educators. "Where you draw the line is debatable."