March 13, 1998

I came to New York from Poland 5 years ago at the age of 7. In that time, I was living in the part of the city dominated by new polish immigrants. My first school was a non-bilingual elementary public school where 30% of the students in it were living less than 3 years in the US. Most of their parents were not speaking fluent English, so families normally did not use English at home. As I remember, it was sometimes not very easy at school for my polish friends and me. However, 3rd grade reading scores (97') placed this school among the top 5 public schools in New York.

In the same area, there is another public school in which more students have Latino origin. This school is not bilingual and it is also among the best schools in New York.

Even if there was a bilingual school in my area I would have still been sent to a non-bilingual school. I think that many parents would probably make a different decision and they would have sent their children to the bilingual school.

I do not believe that bilingual education is an educational issue. It is a political issue. The organizations, people and politicians are fighting for bilingual education but I think they do not really believe that it is better for students. Getting bilingual schools means that you have political power. Money also follows it. But the most important is that you can more easily control people who have little knowledge of English language and who are feeling as strangers in this society.

I was lucky that the polish community in New York did not have political connections to establish bilingual Polish-English education in my area. My friends from 3rd grade moved to good public and private schools. I am on a way to finish college before I turn 16. Of course, English will not be a major. I think it would not have been possible if our first school was a bilingual school.

Marcin Mejran
Brooklyn, New York