No avoiding Prop. 227 for schools
Jill Tucker
California school districts cannot duck the state's voter imposed ban on
bilingual education, the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled Monday.
The ruling prevents district officials from applying to the state Board of
Education for a waiver from Proposition 227 -- the voter-approved initiative
that requires districts to teach students "overwhelmingly" in English.
Three districts -- Oakland, Hayward and Berkeley -- filed a lawsuit a month
after the initiative passed in June 1998 to seek a waiver from having to
implement the law. A previous ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge
Henry Needham, Jr., sided with the school districts.
The 1st District Court of Appeal, however, disagreed and said only
individual parents, not an entire district, can seek a waiver.
The court found that "voters believed Proposition 227 would ensure school
districts could not escape the obligation to provide English language public
education for (non-English speaking) students in the absence of parental
waivers," and that "parents favoring English instruction for their children
are assured by law that it will be provided without the need to lobby school
boards or form parent groups.
"We see no way that the guarantee of English-only instruction subject solely
to parental waiver can be accomplished if school boards are allowed to avoid
compliance with the entire Chapter by seeking waivers, no matter how well
intentioned administrators may be in doing so," the court wrote.
Prop. 227 co-sponsor Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, said the ruling
closed "a very serious loophole" in the law created by the initiative.
"If districts could exempt themselves from 227 ... it could have seriously
undercut the impact of 227 and violated the will of the people," he said.
Hayward Unified Superintendent Marlin Foxworth said he was "deeply
disappointed" in the ruling and that he would discuss a possible appeal to
the state Supreme Court with the Hayward school board and the
superintendents from Oakland and Berkeley.
"When I heard (the ruling), I tried to not go through the roof," Foxworth
said. "The quality of what we've been doing here speaks for itself."
Foxworth said his district has a successful bilingual education program and
simply wants to continue a program that works.
"We don't mess with our children in our district," he said.
Prop. 227 passed with 61 percent of voters and was implemented last fall.
The measure allows parents to request a waiver and opt for bilingual
education -- which uses the student's native language to teach academic
subjects. The measure, however, says nothing about district waivers.
Many districts, including the three plain tiffs, have maintained bilingual
education programs through parental waivers.
State law does provide districts with the ability to waive almost any
aspects of the California Education Code, and the state Board of Education
must grant the waiver if the district is meeting student needs.
When several districts requested waivers from Prop. 227, however, the state
board said they did not have the authority to grant those waivers -- a
position held up by the court Monday.
Rae Belisle, legal counsel to the state Board of Education, said she is
"very pleased" with the appellate court's decision.
"It was a tough road ... but hopefully it's all over now," she said. "I
think most school districts have done a great job in going for ward with
what the people wanted in the initiative. Those decisions are not made by
us, we just have to implement them."
Another lawsuit, filed by bilingual activists to dismantle the law, is
pending in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
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STAFF WRITER Josh Richman contributed to this story.
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