Bilingual education may be on way out
Daniel Gonzalez
A campaign to end bilingual education in Arizona is gaining momentum with proponents claiming they have collected more than enough signatures to place the initiative before voters this November. The ballot initiative, modeled after a similar proposal approved by California voters in 1998, gained added steam Monday when Rep. Matt Salmon, R- Ariz., became the first political leader in the state to endorse the measure. At a news conference, Salmon characterized bilingual education as a "boondoggle" that after 30 years has failed to produce the intended results of teaching immigrant students to be proficient in both their native language and English. Citing a state Department of Education report, Salmon said only 5.5 percent of bilingual students in Arizona become proficient in English. "If 95 percent of the kids fail, then the program ought to be dumped," Salmon said. After California abolished bilingual education, test scores among immigrant students went up, said Salmon, who is leaving Congress next year and weighing a run for governor in 2002. Salmon also blamed bilingual education for the high dropout rate among Hispanic students in Arizona. "If our children are going to compete in the world, they have to learn English," he said. If the initiative passes, bilingual students would be placed in regular English classes and students not fluent in English would be placed in a one-year English immersion course. Maria Mendoza, co-chairwoman of English for the Children of Arizona, said the group has more than the 101,762 signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the Nov. 7 ballot. Mendoza's group was started in Tucson two years ago by mostly Hispanic parents and teachers who say bilingual education places Hispanic children on the road to economic failure by preventing them from learning English, Mendoza said. The group has since won the support of parents and educators in the Phoenix area, including Margaret Garcia-Dugan, principal of Glendale High School, and Norma Alvarez, a community activist and former bilingual education supporter now opposed to bilingual education. "I'm not against being bilingual. I'm not against being Mexican," Alvarez said. "But if we want our children to learn English, we have to get rid of bilingual education." John Petrovic, a researcher at Arizona State University's Center for Bilingual Education and Research, said it would be a mistake to dump bilingual education in Arizona. Research shows that immigrant children benefit more from bilingual education than English immersion programs. "Kids in English immersion programs tend to fall behind academically and not close the gap in academic achievement between themselves and English-speaking students," Petrovic said. * * * Reach the reporter at Daniel.Gonzalez@ArizonaRepublic.com or (602)444- 8312. |