Republican voters have a real choice to make on September 10. It?s not just between myself and Mr. Molera, but between what we stand for. Among the issues at stake is teaching all children English. Molera opposed the initiative that replaces bilingual education with English immersion and he now refuses to enforce it. I supported the initiative, and will enforce it so every child learns English. For this reason, Maria Mendoza, Margaret Garcia-Dugan, and Hector Ayala, leaders of the English for the Children movement, have endorsed me.

In a column dated August 8, Ricardo Pimentel states that ?I don?t believe that Horne is anti-Latino.? Still, he suggests that I have made English immersion an issue in the campaign for questionable reasons. If that were true, it would be a terrible thing, and I would vote against myself.

First, this is not the only issue affecting academic quality that divides Mr. Molera and me. An example is the AIMS test. Out of five candidates (two Democrats and three Republicans) I am the only one who would require students to pass a reasonable test to receive a diploma, so that we do not have graduates with diplomas they cannot read. Of all the solutions, Mr. Molera?s is the worst: he would have students who cannot pass a test still receive a diploma if they do a class project. Thousands of parents would do these projects. This would lead us back to the time when mediocrity was tolerated, and there was no standard of excellence.

Substituting English immersion for bilingual is also an issue of academics. My opposition to bilingual is not ideological, but pragmatic. All I care about on this issue is how students learn best. If studies showed that students in bilingual kept up with their academics and learned English as fast as students in English immersion, then I would support bilingual. But the studies show the opposite. My website, www.tomhorne.com, shows the graphs that substantiate failure of bilingual education.

It?s common sense, really: if a child speaks another language all day at home, and then spends most of the school day speaking that language, that student will not learn English effectively. The lack of English proficiency will be a terrible disadvantage throughout school and beyond ? all to satisfy the misguided ideology of politically correct liberals who haven?t done their education homework.

Second: the law is not being enforced. Politicians should not choose which laws to enforce according to their own preferences.

The initiative had an exception for parents who request waivers. Schools that wanted to evade the law photocopied massive numbers of waivers, and had all the parents sign them. ?We waiver all the kids in? said one bilingual educator to the ASU State Press (04/02/02).

Leaders of English for the Children, who saw their initiative being ignored, wrote numerous letters to Mr. Molera. He did not give them the courtesy of a response.

Consider Hector Ayala, a high school English teacher in Tucson, who was co-chair of English for the Children. His stance took courage: His probilingual peers gave him a hard time. Voters agreed with him, but nothing has changed in the schools. The same peers that gave him a hard time are now laughing up their sleeves at him, and mocking the initiative. This makes him furious; it makes me furious, too.

The vote on September 10 involves serious policy choices for the voters: experience, academic excellence, and enforcement of the law.

Tom Horne is seeking the Republican nomination for state superintendent of public instruction. A former legislator, he is in his 24th year on the Paradise Valley School Board, his 10th as president.



Comments are closed.