SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California voters initiated a revolution in state schools Tuesday, electing to scrap bilingual education for hundreds of thousands of children in the nation’s most populous state.

But in another closely watched vote, Californians narrowly handed organized labor a victory it had desperately sought.

Voters overwhelmingly approved a California ballot initiative known as Proposition 227, which would end bilingual education in a state where almost two-thirds of the population could be Hispanic by 2040.

With nearly three-quarters of precincts reporting, the California Secretary of State’s office said 61.5 percent of voters had approved Prop. 227.

Prop. 227 was pushed by millionaire Ron Unz, who said bilingual classes have shortchanged immigrants and threatened the idea of an English-speaking California. Nearly one-quarter of California’s children are enrolled in bilingual classes, but every year only six percent make the transition into classes taught mostly in English.

The measure would effectively end California’s current selection of bilingual education programs and replace them with one year of "sheltered immersion" in English for immigrant children, after which they would be put in normal, English-speaking classes.

Opponents say the measure’s slash-and-burn approach to bilingual programs could leave an estimated 1.4 million mostly Hispanic children stranded in classes they do not understand, further exacerbating Anglo-Hispanic tensions.

Foes of the drive to end bilingual education vowed Tuesday night to haul the issue straight to court to prevent it from taking effect.

"It’s chaotic, it’s problematic, and what’s worse — it’s a lot of energy for no purpose," Bill Rojas, San Francisco schools superintendent, told KCBS radio. "This is a bad way to attempt to teach children."

California voters defeated Proposition 226, which would have stymied the political clout of labor unions by requiring them to get members’ approval before spending their dues for political purposes.

Sponsored by conservative allies of Republican Calif. Gov. Pete Wilson and opposed by labor unions, Prop. 226 was failing by a margin of 46.7 percent to 53.3 percent.

Declaring victory in the fight against Prop. 226, the California Labor Federation said organized labor had emerged from the campaign stronger than ever.

"California voters as a whole saw this measure for what it was: a thinly veiled attack on working families and unions," Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, said in a statement.

Recent surveys showed support for Prop. 226, which had been strong earlier this year, had ebbed amid a withering advertising blitz by opponents of the union dues measure. Labor unions, hoping to prevent the movement from gathering steam, contributed most of the $17 million raised by the campaign to defeat Prop. 226. By contrast, supporters of the initiative raised a little more than $4.5 million, almost 20 percent of which came from conservative business interests from outside California.

Given California’s reputation for spawning national political trends, both initiatives had been closely watched across the United States. President Clinton announced last month that he was opposed to both Prop. 226 and Prop. 227.



Comments are closed.