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LOS ANGELES, May 21 -- Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo read a Spanish-language
version of Gov. Gray Davis' favorite children's book to a class of fifth graders Thursday as
the pair finished a three-day tour of California, where voters banned bilingual education
just one year ago. Zedillo's rather animated reading of "The Little Engine That Could"
followed Davis' own reading of the book in English. Zedillo spoke primarily in Spanish
during the historic trip with Davis, who opposed the controversial ballot initiative
Proposition 227 that abolished most bilingual education programs in the state and replaced
them with English-immersion programs. Although the bilingual presentation did not violate
the state's anti-bilingual law, it was in stark contrast to the English-only schooling
mandated under Proposition 227. Davis, who did not mention the law during his speech, has
not talked about bilingual education much since taking office, but appeared to be making a
statement by condoning the use of Spanish at the public school. (Sacramento Bee)
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. May 19 -- Orange County school districts that led the statewide push
to end bilingual education saw a drop in the number of students who were reclassified as
fluent in English this year, an Orange County Register analysis has found. The decline in
those districts contrasts with a countywide increase in the so-called redesignation rate,
which measures the number of students reclassified each year from limited English to
fluent. Countywide, about 9,300 students were redesignated as fluent this year ‹ about 6.5
percent of the total of about 142,000 limited English students. That's up from 6 percent last
year, according to an annual census of limited-Engish students. Statewide, 7 percent of the
1.4 million limited English students were redesignated as fluent last year. During last
year's campaign, Prop. 227 proponents cited California's low redesignation rate as evidence
of the failure of bilingual education. But bilingual education advocates say the falling
redesignation rate in districts that received English-only instruction waivers before 227
could be an omen of the law's negative impact. (Orange County Register)
SAN JOSE, Calif. May 18 -- Almost none of the 40 kindergartners in Room 1 at Redwood
City's Fair Oaks elementary school could speak English last September. When I visited Room
1 on the first day of class, I saw a few kids blinking back tears and most others staring
blankly when their teacher, Carol Cross, greeted them with a few sentences in English. But
when I went back to Room 1 this week, there were no more frightened faces. A cardboard
placard posted at the front of the room said, ``We are speaking English today.'' The class
recited days of the week in unison and sang a ``Good morning'' song. Afterward, one boy
couldn't resist tugging on Cross' sweater to ask -- in English -- if he could go outside and
play. Still, Cross' class does not represent a victory for the sink or-swim English
immersion teaching method that California voters made the law of the classroom when they
passed Proposition 227. Cross has taught bilingual classes for 20 years, and her students in
Room 1 are learning to speak English by doing their first lessons in Spanish. (San Jose
Mercury News)
LOS ANGELES, May 18 -- It almost qualifies as political farce. California has more Latino
lawmakers than ever before, elected partly by an immigrant constituency anxious for a
greater voice in government. But many of these new leaders can't communicate with all of
the supporters who helped send them to Sacramento. Why? No hablan espanol. Recently, Gov.
Gray Davis invited a few of the state's 24 Latino legislators to join him on a mission to
improve relations with Mexico. Yet, some of these Latino ambassadors don't speak enough
Spanish to comfortably address people in the country of their parents' origin. Now that's not
funny. That's embarrassing, even painful. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and other Latino
officials recently completed intensive Spanish courses at a popular language school in
Cuernavaca. Their mission: learn Spanish or polish up their pocho, the hybrid Spanglish
developed for survival, not success, by the offspring of immigrants. Bilingual legislators,
like Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, struggled to hold on to their Spanish while
growing up in the 1950s, before bilingual education. Being bilingual may be in, but
bilingual education is out, thanks to the English-only language police. Unfortunately, the
pressure to assimilate forces Latinos and other immigrants to lose their native language. And
language experts worry that public schools have done little to encourage language retention
by native speakers. Proposition 227, which severely curtailed bilingual education in
California, can only make matters worse. (Los Angeles Times)
