THOSE WHO CARE about bilingual education in New York will have an opportunity to show their support for it next Wednesday. They’d better use it.

That day, a public hearing will take place at the Board of Education in Brooklyn. And the New York Bilingual/ESL Education Reform Coalition, made up of more than 20 organizations, is calling on people to attend and speak out.

“Bilingual education has become a target,” said Deister Zummer, a teacher at Intermediate School 61 in Corona. “But it is unfair: The problems of bilingual programs are those of public education in general.”

As if to make clear once and for all where it stands, the Giuliani administration brought in millionaire Ron Unz to be the featured speaker at a public hearing last month. This is the guy who financed the campaign for Proposition 227, which two years ago ended bilingual education in California.

The mayor hoped Unz would add momentum to his own campaign against bilingual ed and in favor of “English immersion.” Giuliani had actually started his efforts a couple of years ago with the creation of a Task Force on Bilingual Education under the leadership of his buddy Randy Mastro.

What qualifies Mastro for such a job is a mystery as deep as the building of Stonehenge. His former jobs as deputy mayor and federal prosecutor must have done little to prepare him to make education decisions affecting 160,000 children.

But what is really outrageous is that, despite the distortions of its opponents, bilingual ed in New York is far from being a failure. Of the children who begin bilingual ed in kindergarten, 73% are transferred to regular classes after three years.

“If 73% of the children in public schools were reading and doing math at the level of their group, that would be a huge success,” says Luis Reyes, a Brooklyn College school of education professor and longtime advocate for bilingual ed.

The results of a research study recently released by the Board of Ed are very revealing. The study, performed in New York City public schools, found that students who exit bilingual programs after three years outperformed the average city student on the 1998 citywide reading test.

Also, students who exited bilingual programs after six years outperformed those who had exited these programs earlier.

Some failure.

Yet not even the most ardent supporters deny that bilingual programs could be better. After all, since 1989-90 when the enrollment was 110,000 students, bilingual programs have had to absorb more than 52,000 new students – not an easy task.

BUT IF THE MAYOR really wants the best for immigrant students, he should listen to the soldiers in the trenches – people such as Beverly Barr – and forget the bureaucrats’ platitudes.

“I believe strongly in bilingual education,” said Jamaican-born Barr, a bilingual education teacher for 20 years, “because I have seen the results.”

For information about Wednesday’s hearing, call (718) 935-3307.



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