Tribes fear severe impact if bilingual education prop passes Arthur H. Rotstein
TUCSON, Ariz.---Navajo education official LeNora Fulton sees dire consequences ahead if Arizona voters approve a Nov. 7 ballot initiative that would dismantle bilingual education. "Proposition 203 is another form of eradicating the Indian people with their language," said Fulton, administrative services officer for the Navajo Division of Education in Window Rock. The initiative is modeled after one approved by California voters in 1998, and most attention has been focused on what impact passage would have on Arizona's large Hispanic population. But it also would affect more than 80,000 children who attend public and charter schools on Arizona's 21 Indian reservations, or are bused off-reservation to public schools in adjoining communities, said Larry Schurz, special assistant to the superintendent of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community schools. If approved, the initiative would require all Arizona public school instruction to be conducted in English and would place students not fluent in English in a one-year, intensive-English immersion program. Parents of some children with special needs could request a waiver from the immersion program, but teachers and districts could reject those requests without explanation. A group called English for the Children-Arizona led the petition drive to get the initiative on the ballot, backed by $100,000 from California millionaire Ron Unz, who spearheaded his own state's bilingual ed eradication effort. The group contends that years of bilingual education have failed to help many Hispanic children learn English. Maria Mendoza, co-chairman of the Arizona group, said passage would give Hispanic children a future. She said they would "finally learn to speak English, read English and write English." A statewide poll taken in mid-September showed 71 percent of Arizona voters supporting Proposition 203, 20 percent opposed and 9 percent undecided. The poll, conducted by a public television station and Arizona State University's journalism school, had a 4.9 percent margin of error. Bilingual educators insist passage would be a disaster, and the ballot measure has prompted rallies in opposition. "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. Schurz and Fulton said it would produce dire consequences for Indian children and their tribes. "It means a loss of identity, cultural loss. When you lose that identity, the children begin to lose the cultural identification of their tribes," Schurz said. "It's racism, pure and simple." Ending bilingual education would send a message to Indian children that "their tribal language is not good enough for them to learn or have knowledge of," Schurz said. "So in essence, what this law will do is effectively say that 'Your language is no longer valid, is no longer appropriate.' "It sends a real shot across the bow of what the real intent is." It also would affect tribes that at some point would like to have native-language immersion programs, said Dave Castillo of the Intertribal Council of Arizona. The Arizona Department of Education's latest figures, for 1998-99, showed 813,000 public school students statewide. Nearly 90,000 were enrolled in an English as a Second Language program, almost 45,000 in bilingual education programs and 8,800 in individualized programs, spokeswoman Patricia Likens said. The department said 200,000 students spoke a language other than English at home - including 162,000 who used Spanish. Federally funded Bureau of Indian Affairs schools would not be affected under the initiative. But public schools on and off-reservation attended by Indian students would be - such as those on the Navajo reservation in Window Rock, Kayenta, Chinle and Tuba City, and in such communities as Coolidge, south Phoenix, Casa Grande and Winslow, where children from other reservations are bused. Fulton said the Navajo language, culture and religion go hand-in-hand. "It's all intertwined and interrelated; it's inseparable. It's a way of life." Tribal elders, like foster grandparents, go into classrooms to teach students in their native tongue, including the Navajo alphabet's 35 sounds. Adults also provide traditional teachings, focusing on the language and significance during field trips to sacred sites, Fulton said. "There are certain things that you can't get the message completely across in in English," she said. |