Preserve Bilingual Education

Last week’s address by Ron Unz at the Graduate School of Education marks the beginning of what will be a long and arduous debate, as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts wrestles over the future of bilingual education. Unz, a California millionaire who already tried to dismantle bilingual education programs in California and Arizona, has come to Massachusetts, the state with the oldest bilingual education law in America, to repeat his past efforts.

Unz seeks to put before voters a ballot initiative in November 2002 that would replace the current bilingual program with a one-year immersion crash course for students who do not speak English. Currently, if there are at least 20 students of limited English proficiency who reside in a Massachusetts school district, that district must provide a three-year program that brings those students to competency in English. At the same time, it must provide additional native language instruction in other subjects, such as math and science, so that students do not fall behind their peers in learning course content. The Unz proposal seeks to end that system, which now serves over 49,000 public school students.

The first hurdle of gathering 100,000 signatures began in September and will last until November 21. Once that has been accomplished and 9,500 more signatures are collected, the question will be put to the voters.

Should the matter appear for their consideration, the citizens of the Commonwealth should reject the proposal. Ending bilingual education would leave thousands of children struggling to keep up. While we understand that the current bilingual education program must be reformed, Unz’s proposal would through the proverbial baby out with the bathwater—bilingual education needs help not because it is too large a program, but rather because it is too limited for the population it seeks to serve.

Non-English-speaking students need to learn English, but they also need to learn the rest of the high school curriculum so that they can rejoin their classmates in English-speaking classrooms without falling behind. To provide students with high-quality education, bilingual educators need drastically increased resources. Skilled teachers are needed so that classroom size can be reduced; administrative support is needed so that student progress can be monitored more closely; and more counselors should be provided to allow students to make a smooth transfer, both academically and socially, into mainstream classrooms. The ballot initiative would take away resources from the effort to integrate non-English speakers and would leave students without the support system they need.

Massachusetts schools are known for their large bilingual programs. Some public school systems teach in 18 different languages, from Somali to Romanian, in an effort to secure for every person the right to a free public education. Unz’s proposal would undermine this education at a time when bilingual students are already facing dismally high failure rates on the state’s high-stakes MCAS exam. Voters should not allow the rug to be slipped out from under the feet of those who are just learning to stand.