Teaching Arabic in Texas

I read this blog entry (related to this news column) about a school district in Texas that tried to offer Arabic classes but was rebuffed by angry parents.

Does anybody know more about the background of this? I was pretty disappointed to hear it, myself; I can understand not wanting any single language to be mandatory, but it seems pretty idiotic* to not want the language to be taught at all.



* See also: xenophobic; bigoted.