Split on Bilingual Ed Plan
For a subject that normally stirs up so much passion, the bilingual education report unveiled last week by Mayor Giuliani's task force was remarkable for what it did not say. It did not call for a two-year limit on bilingual classes, as Giuliani has demanded. It did not call for bilingual classes to be scrapped altogether, as the mayor's top aide on the issue has demanded. But that should not come as a surprise. The task force included Schools Chancellor Harold Levy, who announced his own plan the day after the task force plan was released - with recommendations virtually identical to those of the task force. The key elements of the two plans are: * Ending automatic assignment of non-English-speaking students to bilingual classes conducted in a student's native language. * Establishing a three-year time limit for students in bilingual or English as a Second Language classes, which are taught primarily in English. * Creating an academic track parents can choose that will provide students more intensive ESL instruction. The only significant difference between the two plans is a task force proposal to move students from intensive ESL classes to mainstream classes within one year. Levy's plan has no deadline. Both plans, however, steered clear of task force chairman Randy Mastro's call to end bilingual education. Mastro, a former deputy mayor, was left to record his dissent in an addendum to the task force report that urged the city to fight the court-brokered agreement that created bilingual education in 1974. The move, if successful, would put an end to bilingual education. Although the nationwide debates over bilingual education led California and Arizona to abolish bilingual education, the recommendations for New York schools struck many observers as surprisingly tame. No one has suggested that Levy's presence on the mayor's task force was inappropriate. Levy dismissed questions of a potential conflict last week, saying that it would have been "silly" for him not to participate. The only aspect of Levy's plan that clearly annoyed Giuliani was the projected $75 million cost increase. The mayor declared on Thursday that the board has "plenty of money" in its $169 million bilingual education budget for reforms. People familiar with the process said Levy played a moderating role on the five-member task force. Mastro's suggestion the city fight the 1974 consent decree in court went nowhere. One member, Amalia Betanzos, chairwoman of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, threatened to quit if the move was considered. Although the task force was established 18 months ago, the push for reforms did not pick up steam until the Board of Education released a study in September showing that half of the students in bilingual or ESL classes did not make the jump to mainstream classes in the state-mandated three years. Some students, it was reported, stayed for as long as nine years. The final task force report was a "practical compromise," said Herman Badillo, a former congressman and a Giuliani adviser on educational issues. "If you say you want to eliminate bilingual education altogether, then you would have to go back to federal court," Badillo said. "Any good lawyer could keep that tied up in court for a long time." Levy, who had remained silent on the issue until last week, was mindful that Latino groups that sued to create bilingual education would pounce on any effort to curtail it. The chancellor said he favored "fixing the programs we've got." And in the end, Levy's plan will carry the most weight when the seven-member Board of Education takes up the matter in February. The first step is a public hearing next month. Antonio Perez, president of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, described bilingual education bluntly as "a multimillion-dollar cottage industry that benefits no one but the industry itself." "We're doing an injustice to these young people if we do not find a vehicle to get them through the process quicker," he said. |