SACRAMENTO, CA—Assembly Democrats, backed by a single Republican member, Wednesday approved legislation to renew a bilingual-education program whose future had been clouded by a veto by the governor last year.

The measure, AB37 by Speaker Willie Brown, D-San Francisco, authorizes the state Department of Education to continue to require local school districts to provide non-English-speaking students instruction in their native languages.

The bill, passed on a 42-31 vote, renews the bilingual-education program until June 30, 1992. It also authorizes the extension of six other education programs for Native Americans, economically disadvantaged children and academically gifted students.

Existing state law mandates that school districts provide instruction in native languages when a class has 10 or more students with limited proficiency in English. The program is designed to help students make academic progress during the four to six years that experts say are needed for immigrants to function in English-only classrooms.

The seven programs are scheduled to expire on June 30 of this year as a result of Gov. George Deukmejian’s veto of similar legislation in 1986.

Deukmejian, who said he supports the concept of bilingual education, killed the measure last year to spur lawmakers to reform the state’s 10-year-old bilingual-education requirement.

According to Press Secretary Kevin Brett, the governor does not support Brown’s bill in its current form and will ask legislators to further change the measure in the Senate. Brett would not specify which reforms the governor will seek.

Brown, however, maintains that this year’s bill should satisfy Deukmejian’s objections since it incorporates a number of modifications suggested by an independent advisory committee.

Among the suggestions is a requirement for school districts to notify parents of students with limited proficiency in English about the bilingual education curriculum and allow them to withdraw their children from the program if they desire. The reforms also give the state’s 1,100 school districts more latitude in modifying bilingual programs to their individual needs.



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