Bilingual Policies Criticized

Legislation would allow local rules

SACRAMENTO—State policies for educating the 1.2 million California students who speak little or no English are a dismal failure and need to be revised, a chorus of critics told an Assembly committee Wednesday.

In response, the Assembly Education Committee passed a bill that would give school districts the right to decide for themselves how best to integrate pupils with limited English skills into regular classrooms.

Current state policy says such students should be taught primarily in their native language in order to give them a solid base of knowledge in core topics while teaching them English, a process that can stretch on for years.

The Assembly measure also would give parents the right to remove their children from classes not taught “substantially” in English and have them placed in other classes.

The bill’s author, Assemblyman Brooks Firestone, R-Los Olivos, said he’s trying to promote a moderate bill in the highly charged climate surrounding bilingual education, which some conservatives would like to abolish altogether.

“There are some who are opposed to any bilingual education, which concerns me greatly,” Firestone said. “We’re trying to make this bill positive, sensitive.”

But a California Department of Education staffer said state schools chief Delaine Eastin will likely come out against the bill.

Jai Sookprasert, a lobbyist for the department, said the measure places too much emphasis on English instruction over other core subjects. In addition, under a rule adopted last summer, school districts already can receive permission from the department to deviate from the official policy on bilingual education.

Firestone and other critics said the process of obtaining such permission is too complex and difficult.

To prove that the current policy is failing, Firestone pointed to statistics showing that only 5 percent of the state’s limited-English students graduated to regular classrooms in 1994, compared with 13 percent in 1982.

A 1993 study by the bipartisan Little Hoover Commission also criticized the state’s performance.

“California schools are not providing students with the tools they need to succeed,” Little Hoover Commission Executive Director Jeannine English testified Wednesday.

While more than 100 different languages are spoken in California classrooms, Hispanics make up the largest group of pupils with limited English skills. And some Hispanic parents have become vocal in their dissatisfaction with bilingual education.

So far, Firestone said his bill has not drawn official opposition from two important groups — the California Association of Bilingual Educators and the California Teachers Association. A Firestone staffer said the assemblyman had made 28 amendments to his bill to satisfy CTA concerns.

Another group, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, has come out against the bill.



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