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SACRAMENTO, January 27 -- Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles, has
named bilingual-education foe Ron Unz and 25 others to a blue-ribbon panel to develop
recommendations on state and local government finance. Unz is the Silicon Valley software
entrepreneur who won passage last year of Proposition 227, the anti-bilingual education
measure now in force. Villaraigosa and Unz were on opposite sides in the battle over
Proposition 227. (Sacramento Bee)
SAN JOSE, January 18 -- Ron Unz is on the move again. The controversial Palo Alto
businessman who led last year's charge against California's bilingual education programs is
advising a similar campaign in Arizona. He's also taking on other educational reforms,
including vouchers and charter schools--both of which he deems "gimmicks." That outlook
puts Mr. Unz at odds not only with many fellow Republicans, who traditionally have been big
backers of school vouchers, but also with other Silicon Valley executives including Pure
Software founder Reed Hastings and venture capitalist Tim Draper. Mr. Hastings has been
one of California's leading advocates of charter schools, helping found a nonprofit
organization to promote their growth. Mr. Draper is behind a campaign to put a school
voucher initiative on the state's March 2000 primary ballot. (The Business Journal)
LOS ANGELES, January 13 -- At elementary schools scattered across Los Angeles, teachers
are delivering promising reports that their students are learning English more quickly than
anticipated six months after the implementation of the anti-bilingual education law,
Proposition 227. In interviews at 13 Los Angeles Unified School District campuses with
large immigrant populations, primary grade teachers said their students are absorbing
verbal English at a surprising pace. Some children are even taking the next step and
learning to read and write in English. Still, many of these teachers and other educators
question whether most of the youngsters have acquired the language skills necessary to
comprehend math, reading or history lessons in English. Some suggest that students are
imitating, or parroting, their English-speaking teachers rather than thinking in the
language. (Los Angeles Times)
