You might have thought that with the passage in 1998 of Proposition 227, the initiative that emphasized teaching in English, that bilingual education would be almost through as an issue, especially given Prop. 227’s promising early results.

Now, however, bilingual education advocates appear to have returned to the scene, using recently proposed regulations by the State Board of Education to restore the old practices. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ron Unz, who spearheaded the Prop. 227 campaign, believes the proposed regulations would undermine and nullify the ”English-only” (or

English-mainly) initiative, which passed by a healthy margin of 60.9 percent to 39.1 percent. Prop. 227 requires that public school instruction be conducted in English except for ”initial short-term placement, not normally exceeding one year, in intensive sheltered English-immersion programs for children not fluent in English.” It does allow for a waiver of the English-mainly requirement ”if parents or guardian show that child already knows English, or has special needs, or would learn English faster through alternate instructional technique.” This would allow the kind of bilingual instruction that had come to be used in much of California.

The proposed state board regulations would allow bilingual teachers as well as parents to apply for a waiver to allow ”traditional” bilingual programs. Allowing bilingual teachers to make the decision about the student, rather than parents, is the crucial distinction and likely would lead to a re-start of the bilingual education program in significant ways.

The proposal would also waive the Prop. 227 provision that requires a student to spend at least 30 days in an English language classroom before designating that student as a ”special-needs” child who should have alternate forms of instruction.

”When I heard of these regulations I had an attorney draft a letter pointing out to the board that they violated Prop. 227,” Mr. Unz told us. ”I got a reply that the board was ready to finalize them the next day, so I drove to Sacramento for the meeting. The board paid little attention to my objections, but did make some minor revisions, which required another 30 days before they could be finalized.” He is concerned they will be finalized next week.

The most prominent political figure to object to these proposed rules has been former Los Angeles Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Richard Riordan. ”It’s worse than nonsense. It’s downright evil,” he told a press conference prior to a Republican-sponsored ”Latino Summit” in Los Angeles. ”Gray Davis, in the name of God, in the name of our children, stop this!”

Mr. Riordan has some credibility on the issue. In 1998 he was almost the only major political figure to support Prop. 227. He gave money to the campaign and appeared in commercials.

Spokesmen for Gov. Davis and the state board say critics are overwrought, that they are attempting to implement Prop. 227 rather than undermine it. But allowing teachers who obviously have a vested interest in the matter to petition for bilingual instruction is a strange way to implement a provision labeled ”Parental Exceptions.”

Gov. Davis should urge his appointees to reject the changes. It would also be helpful to hear from gubernatorial candidates Bill Simon and Bill Jones on this important issue.



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