Face facts on special ed...

Massachusetts Democrats have to show they have brains and judgment, and are not puppets of social spending lobbies that perpetrate great harm on vulnerable people while expanding pork-barrel empires behind do-good slogans.

Republicans in the House were roundly beaten back in an attempt to attach Gov. William Weld’s prudent reforms of bilingual education to the budget. The governor’s bill is still before the Education Committee, whose members ought not just rubber-stamp the objections of the empire builders but should look at the facts and think.

And they ought to vigorously reject the revolting use of children as pawns in deeper political games, the way the special education “advocates” paraded children in wheelchairs before the committee recently – children in no danger of losing their special help.

Bilingual education is supposed to teach children math, history and so forth in their native languages while they learn English. It is based on the completely exploded theory that, until they master English, children fail to learn subject matter taught in English (though that teaching may improve their English). Boston University’s Christine Rossell has shown this is not true; they do not fail to learn.

The best evidence that Massachusetts has erected a jobs program for separatists is the fact that parents have no choice in whether their children take part – they aren’t even told when their children are sent to bilingual classes, and they aren’t told that they may request the return of their children to regular classes.

The governor’s bill would let parents make the choice in the first place. This should reduce enrollments right away – polls show 60 percent of the parents of eligible children, and more than 40 percent of parents of kids in the programs, want them out.

These parents know that without good English, you’re most likely doomed to a life of flipping burgers no matter how smart you are.

We’ve seen an assertion that the average child is in the program for three years. If this is true, it’s much too long.One study in Boston middle schools found a third had been in the program at least six years – massive evidence that the children are being used as pawns.

Children learn languages easily. Half or more of children coming into bilingual programs speak better English (just from having lived in the United States for a while) than they do their native tongues (they may have grown up in an area of non-standard dialect). No European country permits more than a single transitional year, and the pupils do well.

Other states are getting good results with “structured immersion” that makes the switch to English quickly, but it’s illegal here – you can’t do more than 45 minutes a day of English. That’s insane. The governor’s bill would permit districts to adopt this innovation from other states.

No one is saying children with no English at all should be sent straight to regular classes, but that’s what the “advocates” would have you believe the reformers want to do. This program can be reformed without throwing out baby and bath water too.



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