Bilingual education backers celebrate donation

$3 million fights Amendment 31

A boisterous crowd of more than 200 Amendment 31 opponents laughed and cheered at a campaign meeting Sunday, just days after learning a $3 million donation would finance much-needed television and radio advertisements.

“Right now, what that donation has done is given us that extra energy,” said English Plus campaign manager Monolo Gonzalez-Estay. “The $3 million will allow us to get information out to Colorado.”

Sunday’s meeting, attended by Amendment 31 opponents from across the state, many wearing ‘No on 31’ buttons and T-shirts, began with a mariachi band and roaring applause when campaign workers were introduced.

“It’s an enormous day for the campaign,” Gonzalez- Estay said. “We’re not just going to be pushed aside by a California millionaire who’s not a parent and not a teacher,” she said, referring to Ron Unz, the California businessman who co-authored the proposed amendment.

Pat Stryker, a Fort Collins resident and mother of a Harris Bilingual Immersion School student, donated the money. It is believed to be the largest contribution from an individual to an issue campaign in Colorado history, independent pollster Floyd Ciruli said.

“Pat Stryker lives in our community and she’s a very generous philanthropist,” said Denise Walters, whose 7-year-old daughter is learning Spanish at the Harris school. “Like us, she favors the value of educational choice.”

Amendment 31 seeks to ban bilingual education in public schools, instead placing Spanish-speaking children in a nine-month English-intensive program. After that period, the children would be placed in English-speaking classes.

English Plus advocates call Amendment 31 a one- size-fits-all plan that eliminates parental involvement and choice in their children’s schooling.

Supporters of the amendment say existing bilingual programs hurt rather than help Spanish-speaking children.

“What we call bilingual education is almost only all-Spanish,” Unz said Sunday. “If the goal is to help immigrant children be successful, you have to teach them English.”

Unz, who has financed similar successful campaigns in California and Arizona, said “there’s no way in the world” he could match Stryker’s donation, while he acknowledged the donation to English Plus “can have a considerable impact on their campaign.”

“We haven’t spent a dollar in advertising,” he said.

Rita Montero, who authored Amendment 31 along with Unz, said the money will make an impact.

“But we believe there is a solid group of people who know that bilingual education has been a failure,” she said.

The English Plus campaign had little more than $100,000 before Stryker’s donation. Campaign co- chairman Gully Stanford said the substantial donation does not guarantee a victory on the Nov. 5 ballot.

“They’re still winning,” he said. “But we’ve pushed them down and we’re going to push them over.”

The first of three anti-Amendment 31 television ads was to begin airing Sunday night, Gonzalez-Estay said. Ads also will be produced in Spanish.



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