Debate Heats Up on Bilingual Teaching

CUMBERLAND, R.I.—Rosa Fino’s dark eyes flashed as she scooted forward in her chair, then spoke fervently in defense of bilingual education in public schools.

“Without it, I would have quit school right away,” said the 17-year-old immigrant from Mangualde, Portugal. “I came here to school when I was 14. They put me in all-English classes. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Miss Fino, now a junior at Cumberland High School, said she learned nothing until she entered Cumberland’s new bilingual program. There she took the usual high school courses from a teacher who taught in Portuguese, giving Rosa time to master English.

But Rhode Island state Rep. John Assalone, whose father came from Italy as a boy, contends bilingual education programs are a waste of taxpayers’ money:

“It’s been shown that when you hand people something, even language, on a silver platter, it doesn’t work. Immigrants should learn English like my father did, without burdening the American taxpayer to support expensive and failing programs.”

Assalone and Miss Fino reflect two sides of a debate taking place in many states. This month, the U.S. Department of Education concludes hearings on a plan to broaden bilingual education in public schools for an estimated 3.5 million pupils whose primary language is not English.

Bilingual programs, which have sprouted in schools across the nation since 1968, are under attack from opponents who, like Assalone, campaign under the banners of tax relief and local government control.

Proponents are having to fight for programs once considered secure.

“One of our biggest problems is the lack of hard data on either side to prove whether bilingual programs work. We can see they work, but we have no real studies to confirm that,” said Virginia da Mota, a consultant for the Rhode Island Department of Education.

The controversy flared in Rhode Island last winter, when backers failed to win passage of a bill to expand bilingual education at a cost to the state of $2.6 million. Assalone led opponents.

The eight programs in Rhode Island are supported by a combination of federal and state funds. Similar programs can be found from Alaska to Maine and Minnesota to Texas, where immigrant children are taught in languages ranging from Japanese and Spanish to French and Navajo.

Many of the programs have been around since 1968, when Congress enacted the Bilingual Education Act.

The Department of Education’s proposed new rules, which aim to address “one of the most serious barriers to equal opportunity education,” would require schools to spend more money — between $176 million and $592 million — on bilingual instruction for children who score below the 40th percentile in standardized tests.

The federal government now spends about $160 million a year on bilingual education demonstration projects. Schools spend about $169 million to $325 million for 831,000 students in bilingual programs. The idea of boosting that figure has aggravated an already sore subject in many states.

In California, for example, bilingual proponents recently fought off an effort to revise the state’s program and are girding for a fresh attack next year.

Opinion is also divided in Rhode Island, which draws large numbers of Portuguese, Colombians and other Hispanics to work in its textile and jewelry industries.

“I see the new swing away from bilingual instruction as another sign that the New Right is gaining a foothold in this country,” said Charles Santos, director of Cumberland’s bilingual education program, which offers 215 Portuguese students classes in their native tongue.

“Statements like that do not address the issue,” said Assalone. “The fact is that studies show these programs do not work. Taxpayers are wasting millions of dollars to fund a Job Corps for bilingual teachers.”

“We can show results here in Cumberland,” countered Santos, who said about 50 Portuguese students have been “main-streamed” into all-English classes since his program began two years ago.

Assalone said he favored some kind of language instruction for immigrant students –but nothing as expensive as the current method.

“My father was thrown down the stairs of a New York City school for not speaking English. I’m not for that. But I am for a little bit of self-reliance, a little bit of self-help among these immigrant groups,” he said.

Dora Gomes, 17, another bilingual student at Cumberland, said, “I don’t understand what he (Assalone) has against programs like the one at this school.”

Said Miss Gomes, whose Portuguese family came to the United States from Argentina five years ago: “You can’t learn math or history in a language you don’t understand. You’ve got to learn the language first. I don’t see why people can’t understand that.”



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