Opponents of bilingual education try for Colorado ballot
DENVER---Lupe Martinez says Denver Public Schools violated her rights and a federal court order when her English-speaking son, Luis, was placed in a bilingual education program. The 8-year-old is now in the third grade but reads at first-grade level because he was forced into Spanish-language classes, his mother said Tuesday. Similar complaints from other parents are prompting former Hispanic activists to try to get onto next year's Colorado ballot with an initiative that would require that children not fluent in English be placed in a one-year English immersion program unless their parents specifically request bilingual education, which can take three years or more. Officials of English for the Children of Colorado on Tuesday filed their initiative with the secretary of state, beginning the process in which they will have to gather about 80,600 signatures of registered voters to put the measure on the 2002 ballot. Rita Montero, the group's statewide chairwoman, said some Hispanics who still support bilingual education are caught up in the past and see bilingual education as a last stand for the Chicano movement. Montero said Denver Public Schools is violating a 1999 federal court order limiting students' participation the English language acquisition program to three years. Montero said school administrators are forcing children who speak English into the program if their parents speak Spanish, and keeping them there to meet the minimum requirement of 75 students per school to keep the program running. "There are some people who see this as the last bastion of the Chicano movement. They're worried this new plan would destroy what they have done for the past 50 years," Montero said. Mark Stevens, spokesman for Denver Public Schools, said no parent is forced to put a child into the program. "It is clearly stated in the plan. We don't say we have the answers, but we do have a program," Stevens said. Ron Unz, a California software businessman who sponsored successful campaigns against bilingual education in California and Arizona, said test scores shot up in California by 40 percent or more after bilingual programs were dismantled. Unz said he may also try to get a measure on the ballot in Massachusetts and file a court challenge in New York, which does not have an initiative process. Montero said some Hispanic students have been kept in bilingual education their entire time in public education and said they suffer when they try to get into college or a job requiring English-language skills. Martinez, speaking through a translator, said she wanted her son to have a better life. She said she can teach her son Spanish at home. "They violated my rights, my decision for my son to be in English classes," she said. Josie Sanchez said she pulled her daughter out of a Denver elementary school and put her in a Catholic school because she had trouble learning. Amber, now in 8th grade, is now reading at the 12th grade level. Joseph C'De Baca, who taught social studies in Denver Public Schools, said he had students in sixth grade who still had not mastered English by the time they reached high school. "Now they're bi-illiterate," he said. |