Jaime Escalante, the famed math teacher depicted in the 1987 film Stand and Deliver, joining California’s anti-bilingual campaign “English for the Children” as honorary chairman. Before Escalante began his fight to teach advanced-placement calculus to students in an East Los Angeles barrio, he was active in the fight to end bilingual education. “It seems a real tragedy,” he said, “that in many cases our public schools are not teaching English to 5- or 6-year-old immigrant children, who are at an age when they can so easily learn the language.”

This big-name addition should help build momentum for the ballot campaign, but the fact is that support for ending bilingual education is overwhelming, especially among Latinos. The Los Angeles Times recently released a poll showing that 84 percent of California’s Latino voters favor dismantling bilingual education. Support is in the 75-80 percent range across the board, all races, ages, and income levels.



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