The Judgement of History
Dear Sirs, In your November 12th profile of my efforts to dismantle bilingual education in Colorado and elsewhere, Gully Stanford, a member of the Colorado State Board of Education, denounces me for sheer "impertinence." Catherine Snow and Kenji Hakuta, both professors of bilingual education, seem to agree, adding additional charges of ignorance and arrogance. Perhaps. But as a theoretical physicist by training, I believe that facts will ultimately prevail. In less than three years following the passage of our 1998 California initiative, the test scores of over a million immigrant students have risen by an average of 50%. As a consequence, both the founder of the California Association of Bilingual Educators and the president of the California State Board of Education have switched from being opponents to being the strongest public advocates of our initiative. Thus, it seems increasingly likely that bilingual education will soon be generally recognized as a utterly failed educational dogma, a disastrous doctrine that destroyed the lives of millions of immigrant students over the past thirty years. If this does indeed occur, then those individuals who created and strongly defended that system for decades---including Snow, Hakuta, and Stanford---will face a withering judgment in history. And the verdict rendered against them will be far, far more serious than one of mere "impertinence." Sincerely, Ron Unz, Chairman
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