NO INTRICATE research and expensive studies are necessary to convince me of its value to immigrant students. Opinion polls cannot sway what I know from personal experience. I am a product of bilingual education.

As the nation debates whether we should do away with bilingual education programs, thanks to another California ballot initiative designed to bash immigrants, all I have do to is remember.

It was the fall of 1963 and I was beginning the 6th grade at Southside Elementary School in Miami when my teachers decided that after a year-and-a-half of bilingual education, I was ready to move into the mainstream of English-only instruction.

There was only one slot available in the English-only class and as the student who had scored the highest points in an exam, I was given the choice of transferring there, or remaining in bilingual education for one more year.

That’s when I made one of the best decisions of my life. I chose to stick with bilingual education.

I still remember my friend Ruben, who had scored the second highest grade on the exam and grabbed the opportunity to move into the English-only slot I had rejected. He struggled in sixth grade and thereafter lost interest in school. He dropped out of high school to become a drummer in a rock band. I went on to college to become a writer in English.

When I saw Ruben again, many years later, he spoke English very well. But he had forgotten his Spanish.

For me, this was proof that one more year of bilingual education, back in the 6th grade, was a worthwhile decision, one that keeps coming back into my mind when I read about California’s Proposition 227, which would end the state’s bilingual education programs for public school students.

As an alternative, those who support this measure would give all immigrant children in California only one year to learn English, through total immersion classes, then move them into English-only instruction.

There would be no more efforts to continue their education in other academic subjects in their native language, until they can cross over into the mainstream.

This is a movement led by the same mean-spirited immigrant and minority bashers who introduced Proposition 187, which attempted to throw illegal immigrant children out of the schools, and Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action programs and slashed the number of minority students in California universities.

But amazingly, polls say Proposition 227, which will appear on a June 2 ballot, is not just popular with anti-immigrant voters, but with many thoroughly confused Latinos. They have been brainwashed into believing that bilingual education fails all the kids it’s supposed to be serving, that the few widely publicized inadequacies of some mismanaged bilingual education programs apply to all.

There are wide variations in the quality of bilingual education programs being used across the country. But instead of throwing out the bad apples, Proposition 227 wants to do away with the whole barrel.

If its supporters were more in touch with reality, they would see that the failings of bilingual programs often reflect broader problems of public education, such as overcrowded classrooms and shortages of adequately trained teachers.

When the Clinton administration came out against Proposition 227 last week, rightfully arguing that it would impose an overly rigid time frame on schools and students, it proposed setting the nationwide goal of limiting most children’s participation in bilingual programs to three years. This middle-ground alternative strategy seems reasonable, but many supporters of bilingual education, while welcoming the President’s stand against 227, complained that three years wasn’t enough. I know better, from personal experience. Having arrived in this country in the middle of a school year, I went through two and a half years of bilingual education, including the year I chose to stay in it.

I know that some students learn faster than others, but if the program is adequate and the teachers are qualified, three years is plenty.

Those who stubbornly insist on longer programs could be contributing to the downfall of bilingual education, especially when even some Latinos believe the current system takes too long and when Proposition 227, the latest in a string of racism-tinged ballot initiatives, is stirring a national debate.

In Congress, some immigrant bashers, like House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, are already proposing to eliminate the Education Department’s office of bilingual education and shift its entire $ 200 million budget to other activities in the department.

Proposition 227, with its one-year immersion structure, would create second-class students who may eventually become proficient in English, but would be so discouraged by the struggle of learning that they would lose interest in pursuing higher education.

It makes me think about my classmate Ruben and reminds me that for me, bilingual education was the best way to learn English, the language that became the essence of my profession.



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