Initiative Focus Of Protest

Parents seek to keep bilingual education

Five hundred people marched and shouted their way through downtown Modesto Monday to protest the June ballot initiative that would end bilingual education in California elementary schools.

Organizers called Modesto’s march the first of many protests being planned around the state.

The marchers are fighting a ballot measure sponsored by Palo Alto millionaire and 1994 gubernatorial candidate Ron Unz. The measure would end bilingual education in core classes, making all students study in English after taking a one-year intensive class to learn it.

Protest participants, who addressed English-Spanish bilingualism, say children learn math and science better when taught in Spanish for at least four years. A broader Spanish education also makes students less likely to forget their native languages, they argued.

“They should speak perfect English and perfect Spanish,” said demonstrator Cecilia Jimenez, Modesto mother of eight. “They need both.”

School boards could make exceptions on parents’ requests, but initiative backers say students should learn more English to get ahead in universities and in business.

At 10 a.m. parents, students and teachers met at the downtown courthouse. Carrying flags or small children, they stretched three blocks by the time they reached Needham Street. Most protesters were of Latin American descent.

Three teachers, two from Modesto and one from Turlock, organized the march. Because Monday was a school holiday, families with children could attend the three-hour event. Fliers passed out Sunday at the Catholic church in Ceres helped announce the march, and Modesto Junior College activists helped keep it moving.

Walking up Ninth Street, then turning right on J Street, the marchers drew long honks from passing cars. But they stopped at corners to let traffic pass. All the while, they shouted “Parents united will never be overcome” and “Why are we doing this? For the children.”

The march ended at Graceada Park. Children and their parents, plus adults who benefited from bilingual education, spoke in Spanish and English at the park’s amphitheater. Bob Jackson, president of the Modesto City School Board, also spoke out against the initiative.

“I think it’s a sledgehammer attempt against a lot of Californians who don’t speak English as a first language,” Jackson said, adding that schools should teach children more of their own language as well as English.

Many of the protesters agreed.

“The curriculum will be more comprehensive to students if it’s in their own language,” said Margarita Fuentes, who teaches bilingual education to third graders in Livingston. “If we can help students with self-esteem, we’re teaching to the child, not just the subjects.”

People behind the initiative, titled “English for the Children,” say many immigrant parents support more emphasis on English. In Los Angeles, immigrant parents protested that the schools were teaching too much

in foreign languages, said initiative spokeswoman Sheri Annis. She said parents, not schools, should help children become fluent in their native languages.

“What’s happening is that the students aren’t transitioning to English,” Annis said. “It varies (school) district by district, but generally it’s monolingual education. It’s mostly Spanish, and that’s what we’re dealing with.”



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