Calif. initiative exposes flawed programs

As a school board member, Fernando Vega helped introduce bilingual education to California's Redwood City schools. Thirty years later, he regrets his work.

Vega's personal epiphany came when his grandson, Jason, was placed in classes taught in Spanish, although the second-generation American spoke only English. When his family demanded a class transfer, they were refused. Due to the school's large Hispanic enrollment, only bilingual classes were offered.

Today, Vega, 73, is a vocal supporter of Proposition 227, a California initiative that would dismantle the state's massive bilingual education program for the 430,000 California students now taught primarily in their native languages.

Polls suggest the referendum will pass by a wide margin June 2. But no matter which way it turns out, the proposal's popularity, particularly among Hispanics, has exposed broad and deep national failures in the way bilingual programs are run. Among them:

• Few states limit the time students are taught in their native languages, even though the federal government recommends bilingual students should move into regular classes within three years. California graduates only 6% of its bilingual students into English-only classes annually. Result: Student graduate from high school unprepared for colleges and workplaces where English is essential.
• Many states provide bonus pay for bilingual teachers and extra school funding for each bilingual student, perverse financial incentives encourage students to languish in the language de-segregated classes.
• At a time when "accountability" is the new mantra of educators, bilingual programs are stuck on automatic pilot. Neither states nor the federal government knows what works or how much bilingual education costs. So confused are the data that estimates range from $2 billion to $10 billion annually. Yet in California, the programs are so bad that the group they should help most, Hispanics, favors junking them, polls show, by as much as 84%.

Because 73% of all bilingual students nationally are Hispanic, bilingual programs are widely blamed for a 30% Hispanic dropout rate, more than twice the national average, and for the low 8% proportion of Hispanics in college.

As a result, parents in several states are demanding a restructuring of failed bilingual programs. In February, the Chicago Board of Education set a three-year time limit on the bilingual classes serving 71,000 students.

Arizona is considering legislation that would end funding for bilingual programs for students who don't join regular classes within four years. And New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has suggested limiting bilingual instruction to a year.

They're moving in the right direction. Teaching all students English as quickly as possible makes sense in a country where the greatest opportunities- and the highest salaries - are reserved for those fluent in the language. But whether Proposition 227 is the right answer is less certain.

The proposal would replace most bilingual education, taught in a student's native language, with intensified English classes. After one year, most student would be placed in traditional classes.

The idea of teaching students with limited English in separate, intensified English classes is backed by the research of Boston University Professor Christine Rossell. She has found that most students are best served when they're taught in a language in which they'll eventually compete.

Unfortunately, though, the proposal has some serious flaws. It assumes that a largely untested, one-size approach will provide a wholesale solution for all that ails bilingual education. And local school districts are left with precious little wiggle room to bail out student who have difficulty making the transition in one year.

Course corrections are nearly inevitable as California copes with an almost total replacement of a system that serves one-fourth of the state's students.

But an important national movement has been launched. In time, it should improve the education not only of children in California but also of 2 million others in bilingual programs across the country.

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