All bilingual education is not the same.

If you’re Hispanic, a Hispanic teacher will most likely teach all your bilingual classes in Spanish.

If you’re Chinese, you may never hear a word of your native tongue.

That’s just part of the confusion over bilingual education.

Most people think bilingual classes allow students to happily go through school without ever bothering to learn English.

Actually, about 80 percent of bilingual students are in mainstream classes in three years. And almost all the rest are in classes in six years.

But if state education czar John Silber has his way, the bilingual system will be streamlined.

Students will have one year to learn English. After that, he figures, they’ll learn as they go along in the mainstream classes.



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