Hispanic leaders vow battle after voters scrap bilingual education

LOS ANGELES, June 3 – One day after California voters booted bilingual education out of their schools, Latino leaders in the state geared up Wednesday for a court challenge to the controversial decision.

With 99.6 percent of the ballots counted, 60.9 percent of voters approved the anti-bilingual education measure known as Proposition 227, while 39.1 percent were opposed.

Despite dire predictions from Hispanic activists that the measure would hurt their community disproportionately, Latino voters staunchly supported Proposition 227, convinced that scrapping bilingual education would allow their children to master English more quickly.

“We have looked, and continue to look at our legal options, and we will take steps necessary to prevent its implementation,” said Thomas Saenz, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

California voters on Tuesday also selected Gray Davis, a 24-year political veteran and the state’s lieutenant governor, as the Democratic candidate for governor.

Davis, 55, who spent less money than any of the leading contenders on a campaign that went down in history as the most expensive local race in US history, became the chief beneficiary of a voter backlash to his rivals’ lavish spending and mean-spirited attack ads.

Davis netted 57.6 percent of the vote, while businessman Al Checchi gained 20.9 percent and US Representative Jane Harman 20.3 percent.

Davis spent nine million dollars to Checchi’s near 40 million and 14 million dollars spent by Harman.

And when he did begin running television ads late in the campaign, his slogan was: “Experience Money Can’t Buy.”

But the real tidal wave from Tuesday’s election was the decision by voters to scrap bilingual education, a move that directly affects some 1.4 million school-age students with limited English in California.

Non-English speaking students, mostly elementary school students, are currently taught the basics in their native tongue while they take English lessons on the side. Students with limited English make up roughly 25 percent of the state’s school population.

Under the new initiative, students who are not proficient in English would enter a year-long immersion program in the language. Upon completion, they would enter regular classes at their grade level.

California schools have a large number of first-generation Spanish-speaking immigrants, but they also handle students speaking 140 different languages from Armenian to Korean and Russian.

Tuesday’s vote has implications nationwide, as states such as Texas and Illinois with large student immigrant populations of their own grapple with bilingual programs that have had varying degrees of success.

California voters rejected a measure aimed at curbing the ability of unions to make political contributions.

That initiative, Prop 226, would have barred unions from using member dues for political purposes such as television ads, direct mail and lobbying campaigns unless they receive written consent from members each year.



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