City Bilingual Ed Facing 2 Legal Attacks
With the Board of Education set to approve its first overhaul of bilingual education in the coming weeks, the 26-year-old court order that started it all may come under an unexpected two-pronged attack. Ron Unz, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who successfully bankrolled the abolition of bilingual classes in California and Arizona, is laying the groundwork for a parent-led lawsuit to overturn the 1974 ruling that created classes for city students who speak little or no English. "We're talking with attorneys, and we're talking with individuals who might be willing to act as plaintiffs," Unz said yesterday. In a separate effort, City Hall is investigating a legal challenge of the consent decree that settled a federal lawsuit the Latino advocacy group Aspira filed against the Board of Ed in 1972. "Regardless of whether you think bilingual education is failing or working, it doesn't make any sense for the school system to be run by the courts rather than the chancellor," said Deputy Mayor Tony Coles, Mayor Giuliani's top education adviser. Giuliani and other critics of bilingual ed have pointed to the consent decree as the primary obstacle to making radical changes to bilingual ed. The board postponed today's scheduled vote on Schools Chancellor Harold Levy's $75 million overhaul to let board members submit amendments to the plan. Key points of Levy's overhaul, which mirror recommendations made by the mayor's bilingual ed task force, include ending automatic placement in bilingual classes, limiting the time students spend in classes to three years and offering beefed-up English-as-a-second-language instruction as a third option for parents. |