Prop. 227's promise
Editorial
The evidence keeps rolling in that California's Proposition 227, the 1998 ballot initiative that largely outlaws bilingual education, has been one of the best things to happen to the state's immigrant students. 'A record number of Los Angeles Unified students learning English have achieved fluency in the first full school year since passage of Proposition 227, a ringing endorsement for proponents of the measure that ended bilingual education classes in the state,' The Los Angeles Daily News reported on Wednesday. Just over 10 percent of that district's English learners, or 32,400 students, made the transition to fluency between December 1998 and December 1999, according to district records, compared with 9.9 percent during the previous year and 8 percent in the last year of bilingual education, the newspaper reported. And, Stanford 9 test scores rose as well last year for student with limited English speaking skills. These are the latest statistics confirming what Prop. 227 proponents - and common sense - told us: Students are far more likely to become fluent in English if they are taught in English rather than in their native language. Statistics from other districts confirm dramatic fluency improvements for students immersed in English, compared to those still wallowing in bilingual ed classes. Ron Unz, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who spearheaded Prop. 227, told us that immigrant test scores have increased on average by 20 percent in the seven months after 227's passage, with some scores increasing as much as 100 percent. This is a remarkable and under-reported good news story that has broad implications. As American society absorbs record numbers of immigrants, it struggles between a vision of the melting pot or of multiculturalism, Mr. Unz argues in the April/May issue of the American Enterprise. 'By most measures, the assimilation of Asian and Latino immigrants is proceeding far more rapidly than that of white immigrant groups who arrived early in the 20th century,' he wrote. 'Thus in California the number of 'multi-racial' births recently passed the combined total of black and Asian births. 'Yet at the same time that the reality of the melting pot has grown, the ideology behind it - even the very term itself - has been driven out of public discourse. Today, the contrary concepts of 'maintaining diversity' and 'fostering multiculturalism' are the purported goals of liberal elites Leaders of ethnic advocacy groups are assumed to be speaking on behalf of millions of their co-ethnics, and the Democratic Party chooses its convention delegates based on strict ethnic and racial criteria.' He fears that Republican politicians, burned by charges of cultural insensitivity, are backing away from any sort of ethnic-related issues - even popular efforts to end bilingual education. That leaves the political game open to the multiculturalists, who are more intent on building ethnic voting blocs than in integrating immigrants into the American mainstream. According to the Daily News article, activist groups that supported bilingual education say it's still too early to gauge the impact of Prop. 227. But in a recent e-mail, Mr. Unz argued that 'Many politicians probably suspected these developments from the beginning. It is noteworthy that in these past two years, I am not aware of a single California politician who has attacked or even significantly criticized Prop. 227.' Mr. Unz also points to Gov. Gray Davis' May budget revision, which includes an additional $300 million for an adult literacy program, and to his appointment of Nancy Ichinaga to the state Board of Education. She is an outspoken opponent of bilingual education. This is real progress. During the divisive battle over Prop. 227, one leading pro-bilingual education group argued that the Unz initiative 'is not about selecting the 'best way' to teach English. It is about gambling with children's lives and placing radical restrictions on the schools.' It is 'extreme, irresponsible and hazardous to California's future.' Those scare-tactic assertions have not materialized. But next time a similar battle erupts, Californians would be wise to remember that the melting pot still works provided that the government pursues policies that unite people rather than divide them along racial and ethnic lines. |