Ballot Initiative in Arizona
ANCHORS: LISA SIMONE
REPORTERS: ROBERT SMITH LISA SIMONE, host: On Tuesday's ballot in Arizona, voters will be asked if they want to
dismantle the state's bilingual education program. The proposal
closely
resembles a successful initiative in California two years ago that
mandated
English as the language of the classroom. From Tucson, NPR's Robert
Smith
reports. ROBERT SMITH reporting: On the south side of Tucson, Spanish is the language on the street, but
in
Juan Romero's cinder block living room, he tells his children to
speak
English. When Romero enrolled his kids in the neighborhood elementary
school, he had hoped that they would learn to read and write English,
too. Mr. JUAN ROMERO: They told us that they were teaching them bilingual,
but
their homework was in Spanish. Teachers were Spanish. They were
learning
more Spanish than English. SMITH: It's been a frustration for many immigrant parents like Romero
who
see education as the only ticket to success for their children.
Bilingual
education in Arizona means Spanish instruction in math and history,
while
the children slowly pick up English skills. Romero took his kids out of
the
system and put them into an all-English charter school. Mr. ROMERO: Because I wanted everybody to be better than I 'cause my
English
is all broken up, you know? SMITH: For the last decade, a handful of parents and conservative
educators
have fought bilingual education in Arizona through the courts and
state
Legislature, but now they're turning to the ballot with Proposition
203. Ms. MARGARET GARCIA-DUGAN (Principal, Glendale High School): If you
want
kids to learn English, you need to teach them English. SMITH: Margaret Garcia-Dugan is the principal of Glendale High School
outside of Phoenix. She says that Prop 203 is simple: a year of
English
immersion for non-native speakers, and after that, English-only
instruction. Ms. GARCIA-DUGAN: It's the most important skill that we can provide
students, and when we don't provide that, I think that we are
relegating
them to poverty. SMITH: The initiative is an almost direct copy of the one that passed
in
California in 1998. And the campaign is funded by the same man,
Silicon
Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz. In California, test scores went up after
the
passage of the measure. It's still unclear if any of that can be
attributed
directly to the end of bilingual education, but Unz is crisscrossing
Arizona
making that argument. Mr. RON UNZ (Silicon Valley Entrepreneur): I think Arizona immigrant
students are very similar to California immigrant students. And I
wouldn't
be surprised if their test scores rise rapidly as well. SMITH: His supporters are vowing a strict end to dual-language classes
like
this one in the town of Gilbert. Ms. MARIA SALAIZ(ph) (Teacher): (Spanish spoken) OK? Kimberly. KIMBERLY: If you're, like, walking and... SMITH: Maria Salaiz teaches her third- and fourth-grade class in
Spanish
today. Tomorrow will be all in English. Her children include some
Mexican
immigrants, some Anglo students, all going back and forth between
languages.
Salaiz says she's seen tremendous results from the program. By fifth
grade,
many of her students are truly bilingual and ahead of where they might be
in
an English immersion class. Ms. SALAIZ: A lot of the times what happens is Spanish speakers focus
so
much on learning just English and keeping afloat with just
comprehension
that academically, they loose out in math and science and social
studies.
This allows them to not only keep up academically but fully participate
in
the classroom. SMITH: Salaiz and other bilingual educators have started to talk about
how
they might work around the new law if it passes and they've begun to
organize to try and fight the measure. Crowd: (In unison) No on 203. No on 203. No on 203. SMITH: At Arizona State University in Tempe, hundreds of students gather
for
a noontime rally. For them, the measure is not only a assault on
language,
it's an attack on culture. Unidentified Man: We're not going to let children feel bad for their
language. They can't shame our children. They can speak Spanish. Yes,
they
can. (Soundbite of applause) SMITH: But the measure won't only restrict Spanish instruction. The
most
vocal opposition has come from Arizona's Native American tribes. Mr. KELLY WASHINGTON: (Foreign language spoken) I don't know. It's hard
to
translate, but that's our group that we call ourselves. SMITH: Kelly Washington lives on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian
Reservation outside of Phoenix. He's been trying for years to help
preserve
the Pipaash(ph) and Authm languages. The instruction's provided in
the
school system, and he's worried about the impact of Prop 203. Mr. WASHINGTON: I think it interferes with how we would like to conduct
our
own lives within our own lands. We're indigenous peoples and, you
know,
we've suffered a lot already, our language. It's already in danger of
extinction. SMITH: On this reservation, the measure could affect a couple of
hundred
students. On the much larger Navajo land to the north, 19,000 students
have
limited English skills. Sponsors of the anti-bilingual initiative
like
Garcia-Dugan say that native fears are misplaced. Ms. GARCIA-DUGAN: We are not going to strip any child's culture or make
them
feel bad about who they are. I think we're going to hurt them if we
don't
teach them English. SMITH: Although in many ways, the debate over bilingual education is
a
technical one about education strategies, sponsors of the initiative
have
turned it into a referendum on the current state of Arizona education.
And
even opponents concede that there are enough failing bilingual programs
out
there to create a bad impression. If the voters in Arizona decide to ban
all
bilingual programs, California millionaire Ron Unz says he'll be taking
his
English crusade to other states. Robert Smith, NPR News, Tucson,
Arizona.
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