Senate approves bilingual education bill

BOSTON—Schools would be able to choose from a range of bilingual education options under a bill approved overwhelmingly by the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday.

The bill is similar to a proposal approved by the House earlier this month designed to give districts more flexibility teaching English.

“We are giving schools considerable choice,” said Robert Antonioni, D-Leominster. “We are expanding their opportunity to educate their children.” Critics said the bill offers little true choice. They said schools will likely try to continue existing bilingual education programs, which they say don’t work.

“This is not a reform. This is a rubber stamp of the status quo,” said state Sen. Guy Glodis, D-Worcester, the only senator to vote against the measure.

The bill requires schools to measure students’ performance, mandates bilingual education teachers be certified and sets up parents advisory councils.

The bill is also an attempt to deflate support for a question on the November ballot that would replace the current bilingual education system with a one-year English “immersion” program.

The question is the brainchild of California software entrepreneur Ron Unz, who bankrolled similar, successful initiatives in California and Arizona.

Supporters of the ballot question criticized the House and Senate bills as too modest and said immigrant parents overwhelmingly support a one-year program.

“Immigrant children, regardless of what country they come from, especially at young ages, are capable of acquiring English in short order,” said Lincoln Tamayo, a former Chelsea High School principal who is leading the ballot campaign.

Also on Thursday, the Supreme Judicial Court rejected a challenge by opponents of the ballot petition. Opponents said a one-sentence summary of the proposal was misleading because it did not mention that its passage would allow teachers to be sued.

Supreme Judicial Court Justice Francis Spina said the teacher-sanction provision isn’t necessary in the one-sentence summary because it is mentioned in a longer summary that is also mailed to voters.



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