Teachers group loses challenge to portion of Proposition 227

SAN FRANCISCO—The California Teachers Association lost a federal court lawsuit Wednesday challenging a provision of Proposition 227, the voter-approved initiative requiring students be taught in English.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in agreeing with a lower court, left intact the right of parents and guardians to sue a teacher if the teacher “willfully and repeatedly” violates Proposition 227. The appeals court, ruling 2-1, agreed with U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie, who in 1999 rejected the CTA contentions that the lawsuit provision is vague and violated teacher’s free speech rights.

No teacher has been sued for alleged violation of Proposition 227, approved by 61 percent of California voters in 1998. The measure abolished most bilingual education programs for California’s 1.4 million children who speak little if any English, replacing them with English-only instruction. In some cases, students can receive a waiver to continue with bilingual classes.

The appellate panel ruled that the initiative requires that teachers present the curriculum “overwhelmingly” in English or “nearly all” in English, Judge Robert Boochever wrote.

The CTA argued that such parameters make it unclear when a teacher could be breaking the law. Boochever ruled that, even if the law is vague, “the Constitution must tolerate a certain amount of vagueness.”

In dissent, Judge Wallace Tashima disagreed. “Teachers do not have fair notice of when and how much English is required to avoid personal liability.”



Comments are closed.