Bilingual Backlash

The indefatigable Ron Unz—author of Prop 227, which ended bilingual education for California students (except those with parents misguided enough to insist on it)—points out some amazing statistics to The Scrapbook. The state?s testing of second grade students shows that students with limited-English proficiency who are now taught in English-only classes are vastly outperforming those languishing in the vestigial bilingual programs. For instance, 28 percent of the mainstreamed students score above the 50th percentile on the reading test, while only 13 percent of their peers consigned to bilingual classrooms do so.

The achievement gap in favor of the students liberated by Prop 227 is so glaring that it should qualify as malpractice that any bilingual classrooms have survived. So how has Gov. Gray Davis’s state board of education greeted the good news? Well, behind the scenes they?re trying to undo it. Among the regulations they?re mulling to subvert the law, the most outrageous would give bilingual teachers (as opposed to the kids’ parents) the authority to assign students to their classrooms. Or perhaps we should say ?condemn? children to their classrooms. Which part of the voters’ “no? didn?t they understand?



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