California Education Reform

California Education Reform

In 1968, the Bilingual Education Act was passed into law by the United States federal government. Passed during an era of growing immigration and an energized Civil Rights movement, the act mandated that schools provide Bilingual Education programs and provided federal funding to encourage local school districts to try approaches incorporating native-language instruction. This was the first time U.S. Congress had endorsed funding for Bilingual Education.

However, "in June, 1998, California voters approved Proposition 227-- the "English for the Children" initiative, headed by software entrepreneur Ron Unz-- by a vote of 61% to 39%, including a large vote from language-minority voters" (Language 1). The proposed law held bilingual education responsible for the increasing enrollments of limited-English-proficient students in California and charged that the state's bilingual programs had a 95 percent annual failure rate, based on the percentage of English learners, whether in bilingual classrooms or not, who failed to become fluent in English. Proposition 227 provides substantiation for the law stating that structured English immersion, an English-only program projected to last just one year, would speed up the acquisition of English. Consequently, the proposition also states that language-minority parents would embrace English-only immersion programs.

Supporters of proposition 227 argued that the current system of bilingual education may work in theory, but has not worked in practice. While those in opposition to the proposed law claim that the simplistic solution projected by the proposition is instructionally unsound and uses a one size fits all approach. Those in opposition also challenged that many of the previous bilingual education programs have been poorly implemented; held back by a shortage of qualified bilingual teachers. Though Unz's proposal was challenged in the courts, the initiative was successful in eliminating native language instruction in public schools across the state, replacing it with intensive English-language immersion.

Years later, proposition 227 was found to have no more superiority over any other English learner instructional approach. For this reason the demand for an efficient bilingual education program is still great. The implementation of a two-way bilingual education program in the public schools of California will allow students to progress academically in two languages and gain an appreciation of another culture.

The two-way bilingual education program would integrate language minority students and language majority students into one classroom which would provide instruction and language development in two languages. The program would be put into practice at the kindergarten level and progress through to the twelfth grade. California's public school classrooms would be