Poll shows voters heavily favor ending bilingual education Arthur H. Rotstein
TUCSON, Ariz.---Arizona voters heavily favor a Nov. 7 ballot initiative that would replace the state's bilingual education program with intensive immersion instruction in English, a statewide poll shows. The poll found 71 percent support Proposition 203, 20 percent oppose it and 9 percent are undecided. The telephone poll of 400 registered voters was conducted Sept. 14-17 by KAET-TV and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunications at Arizona State University. The poll has a 4.9 percent margin of error. "I'm not surprised," said Hector Ayala, a Tucson high school English teacher and co-chairman of English for the Children-Arizona, which sponsored the initiative. He said the results are virtually identical to those of a poll his group commissioned in October 1998. "I think we're doing very well," Ayala said. "Obviously we're getting the word out. Word-of-mouth goes a long way." Proponents argue that despite spending years in bilingual education classes, non-English speaking students in Arizona don't learn English and have a higher dropout rate. They also point to higher test scores reported this year in California since voters there approved a 1998 initiative - upon which Arizona's ballot measure was modeled. "There is very little they (opponents) can do with that," Ayala said. Opponents of Prop 203 say the California test scores were not reported in context and that academic research clearly shows bilingual education works. "I have never seen a single credible scientific study that shows 180 days of English-only instruction is better than bilingual ed. Never," said Josue Gonzalez, director of ASU's Center for Bilingual Education and Research. ASU education professor and bilingualism specialist Jeff MacSwan said that many students are already in Prop 203-style immersion. "Many people support this thing because they think quite mistakenly that everybody is being taught bilingual education" and that current law does not allow options, he said. Gonzalez said the proposition limits school boards' power to design curriculum and make curriculum decisions. "It eliminates a program that works better than the alternatives." But Gonzalez acknowledged the initiative has broad support, and concluded that many supporters don't know all the details, are swayed by proponents' rhetoric or are motivated by some other reason - perhaps "to keep kids and teachers from using Spanish in school and to help eradicate Spanish from the society." Ayala, who is Hispanic, decried opponents' contentions that its backers are "racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican, when every one of us is either an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant." He said hundreds of supporters, including dozens of bilingual ed teachers and administrators approve of the measure but are afraid to comment publicly for fear of being ostracized. |