TUCSON, Ariz. — Flanked by Ron Unz, architect of California’s new law to end bilingual education, a group starting a similar Arizona initiative faced angry protestors Wednesday in what could be the beginning of a long and explosive debate.
Co-founders Maria Mendoza and Hector Ayala of English for the Children Arizona were largely drowned out by 75 to 100 advocates of bilingual education waving signs and posters and chanting “Unz go home!”
Afterward, the group headed to Phoenix to file their ballot initiative at the secretary of state’s office.
English for the Children Arizona will have until July 6, 2000, to collect 101,762 valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot that November, said Jessica Funkhouser, state elections director.
The proposed initiative would call for children not fluent in English to be put in special intensive “sheltered English immersion” programs to learn English as quickly as possible. Bilingual education classes now are taught in Spanish for several years, with students slowly weaned to English.
Mrs. Mendoza said she’s opposed bilingual education for 33 years because it hasn’t taught Mexican-American children to speak and read English. She also faulted it for Tucson’s high dropout rate.
“We are not against being bilingual,” Mrs. Mendoza said. “We are in favor of teaching our children how to read and write the English language so that that they can be successful in this country.”
Ayala, drowned out initially by chants of “Unz go home!” said softly that in his 12 years as a Tucson high school teacher, “I have watched for too long the inability of Spanish-speakers to succeed in English.”
Ayala said he sees a connection between their failure and bilingual education, despite $14 billion spent on it nationally and $70 million statewide last year.
“It’s time try something different,” he said. “It’s time to teach them English.”
Demonstrators favoring continued bilingual education vowed, some stridently, to fight against the initiative.
“We must make this state accountable for our children,” said Alejandra Sotomayor, president of the Tucson Association of Bilingual Education. “We cannot be silent any more,” she said. “This is our future. We must fight for our children, and let’s do it well. Let’s not sell out Arizona.”
The pro-initiative group held a news conference at El Rio Neighborhood Center in a west side Hispanic community, where Mrs. Mendoza said the jeers and opposition were expected.
“I’m not sorry that we did it,” she said. “It gives us a push to continue with it.”
Unz said he received similar reactions during last year’s California campaign. Voters there easily approved Proposition 227, and Unz said he is confident that a majority of Arizonans will favor the new initiative. It is virtually identical with the California measure.
The bilingual education agenda has been imposed for too long on Mexican-American families, often without parental permission, Ayala said.
Putting the initiative on the ballot will give the public and parents a real choice, he said.
In Phoenix, Jaime Molera, Gov. Jane Hull’s education adviser, predicted the initiative would draw support from a wide spectrum of the public, including many Hispanics and advocates of official English.
“It would be pretty hard to beat,” Molera said during a recent interview.
Molera said Mrs. Hull opposes the initiative. “We don’t think we need the initiative as public policy,” Molera said. “Legislators working with educators can come up with reasonable proposals on how to deal with this rather than eliminating everything.”
A legislator who is sponsoring a bill to generally limit state funding for bilingual education to three years for individual students said her proposal represents middle ground between the initiative and another lawmaker’s bill to tighten state regulation of bilingual education.
“My legislation turns out to be the moderate piece of legislation here,” said Rep. Laura Knaparek, R-Tempe.
“I much prefer to see something go through the legislative process when you have constituencies so we can work out the bugs,” she said earlier this week. “I don’t want it to be harmful to kids.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham Keegan opposes the initiative because the issue is complex and some bilingual education programs do work, spokeswoman Patricia Likens said.
Ayala said a recent poll found that 72 percent of Arizona’s voting public favors such an initiative.
But Hank Oyama, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who joined the pro-bilingual protesters Wednesday, urged Arizonans to heed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a bilingual education proponent whom he said has told Unz he is not needed in Arizona. McCain introduced a resolution in Congress supporting learning English in addition to the language of the home, viewing it as in the national interest to develop more bilingual Americans, he said.
“We consider it an insult when people come and imply that being bilingual is somehow not quite American,” Oyama added.
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