Legislators enter a bilingual-ed time warp

[unhappycamper]

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/may/28/senate-enters-the-bilingual-education-time-warp/



In this photo taken Friday, Feb. 14, 2014, kindergarten teacher Thao Tran teachers kindergartners in a dual immersion language class at White Center Heights Elementary School in Seattle. In a handful of schools across the country, kindergartners aren’t being taught just in English, but also in Vietnamese. The move to add Vietnamese to the growing list of languages featured in dual immersion education classes comes as the American born children of Vietnamese immigrants are striving to preserve their family’s heritage for the next generation.

Legislators enter a bilingual-ed time warp
By Steven Greenhut
5 p.m.May 28, 2014

SACRAMENTO — Listening to Tuesday’s debate on the state Senate floor over an attempt to revive “bilingual education,” I was left wondering whether legislators simply have short memories — or whether the Capitol exists in some parallel universe.

Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, championed his bill, SB 1174, which would ask voters in the November 2016 election to gut Proposition 227, the successful statewide initiative that required California schools to teach immigrant students mostly through English immersion. His measure passed the Senate on a 27-8 vote.

The new initiative would end the English-immersion requirement and mainly allow local school districts to choose the instruction method they prefer after consulting with experts and holding community outreach programs.

People still heatedly argue about 1978’s property-tax-limiting Proposition 13. But I always figured that 1998’s Proposition 227 had to be right behind it in terms of collective memories given the impact it has had on public education and on the debate over immigration and assimilation.

[roody]

1. 227 is bad policy made by voters

who know nothing about language acquisition. We continue to teach in languages other than English. Parents have to get a 227 waiver each school year.