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WASHINGTON, September 30 -- While most California schools are wrestling with the
state's new restrictions on bilingual education, some are looking for a way out. The state has
signed off on five districts' plans to convert their existing dual-immersion or two-way
bilingual programs into charter schools. Under California law, charter schools are exempt
from virtually all state rules. In addition to charter schools, alternative schools can also
operate outside most state rules if they are granted an exemption from the state schools
chief. State Superintendent Delaine Eastin granted exemptions this month to alternative
schools in two districts to enable them to continue their dual-immersion programs. Such
moves will affect just a tiny fraction of the state's 1.4 million limited-English-proficient
students. Under Proposition 227, a ballot measure California voters approved in June,
schools are required, in most cases, to teach LEP students mostly in English. (Education
Week)
SAN FRANCISCO, September 29 -- As schools across California meet the demands of
Proposition 227 by placing immigrant students into special classes to learn English this
month, these Marin preschoolers are learning that having command of a second language is
not a hindrance but an asset. ``Of course children need to learn English,'' said Lee Lesser, the
center's head teacher and on-site director. ``But they do, and they want to.'' The bilingual
initiative, which is forcing students into all-English classes, does not apply to preschools.
But Lesser said she is troubled that the new law will send a message to children that a lack of
proficiency in English is cause for humiliation. ``You don't have to take away a child's home
language (in teaching them English) and make them ashamed that their family speaks
another language,'' she said. (San Francisco Chronicle)
COMPTON, Calif. September 28 -- Marcos Pineiro came to Compton, Calif., from Spain last
month to teach grade-school students with limited English skills in their native Spanish.
School district officials recruited Mr. Pineiro and about 200 other bilingual teachers in
Spain for California's current school year. The teachers arrived here largely unprepared
for the effects of Proposition 227. The ballot initiative has outlawed bilingual education in
most of the state's public school system. California voters passed the measure in June to
replace a dual-language system, in which students were taught English but learned other
subjects in their native tongue. Critics, including some parents of students receiving
bilingual education, had complained that the system led to high drop-out rates and low
English literacy. The proposition mandates for all students a period of "English immersion,"
in which instruction in all subjects is supposed to take place "overwhelmingly" in English.
One result is an Alice-in-Wonderland scene in many California classrooms: Non-native
English-speaking teachers teaching non-native English-speaking pupils in English. These
teachers and students are in a kind of limbo, muddling through in a language that isn't their
own. (Desert News)
PORT HUENEME, Calif. September 27 -- It seemed like such a good idea that California's
voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of Proposition 227 to effectively end bilingual
education. However, several weeks into the program, the idea has gotten a thumbs-down in
one Ventura County school district. Parents of more than 99 percent of the 3,400 limited
English speakers in the Hueneme Elementary District are seeking waivers to allow their
children to continue receiving bilingual instruction, school authorities said Friday at a
bilingual education conference. Parents in districts up and down the state have sought the
waivers since English-immersion classes mandated by the June ballot measure took effect
for the fall semester. (Sacramento Bee)
SAN JOSE, September 25 -- Stung by the suggestion they've violated Proposition 227,
Gilroy school trustees have ordered a legal opinion and scheduled a special meeting to help
clarify the new law, which limits the use of bilingual education in California schools.``Part
of the problem with this whole issue is nobody seems to know what the regulations are,'' said
Gilroy school board member Richard Rodriguez. ``We are getting so many different
interpretations that it's very confusing to everybody, even the superintendents. ``The state
Department of Education says one thing, the state Board of Education says something else.
(State schools chief) Delaine Eastin's view is different and the county board of education
gives us their interpretation. We are getting mixed messages.'' (San Jose Mercury News)
LOS ANGELES, September 25 -- he Los Angeles school board sought permission Thursday for
34 schools to continue bilingual education programs that would otherwise be prohibited by
Proposition 227. Saying that the programs give student solid academic foundations, officials
asked the State Board of Education to exempt the campuses from the English immersion law.
"We are making the case that we should build on what students bring to us," said school
board member Jeff Horton. "If we produce a generation of students who speak two languages,
what an achievement." The state board has refused to consider similar requests by 40 other
school districts until it resolves pending litigation over Proposition 227. In fact, the board
was expected today to appeal a ruling by an Alameda County Superior Court judge requiring
it to consider waiver requests. The appeal was not expected to be heard for several months.
(Los Angeles Times)
WESTMINSTER, September 23 -- School trustees, citing a $150,000 shortfall, recently
voted to eliminate 82 bilingual assistant positions and reduce the hours of 100 remaining
assistants. Westminster School District board members last week voted reluctantly--but
unanimously--to cut the positions after being told by administrators of the funding
problem. The shortfall arose after approval of the state budget last month. That budget
contained a 2.18% increase for "categorical" programs--including bilingual assistants-
but the district is increasing salaries by 4.03%, leading to the shortfall. The District's
Superintendent said the cuts are not related to the recent passage of Proposition 227, which
eliminated most bilingual education. Westminster was not affected by the proposition
because it had received a waiver from the state's bilingual requirements several years ago.
(Los Angeles Times)
SANTA ANA, Calif. September 22 -- It was 1985 and first-grade teacher Gloria Matta
Tuchman was under orders: Teach bilingual education or risk reprimand. Matta Tuchman,
whose Mexican-American parents were adamant that their children speak English, refused.
Exasperated, her principal declared, ``Lady, if you don't like it, you go change the law.'' So
she did. Matta Tuchman would co-write the ballot measure last June that banned bilingual
education in California - a campaign that has propelled her into a runoff election in
November for the job of California superintendent of schools. (Boston Globe)
OAKLAND, September 18 -- Supporters of bilingual education suffered a setback Thursday
when an Alameda County judge ruled that the state Board of Education was not in contempt in
ignoring requests for districtwide waivers from Proposition 227 pending an appeal.
Superior Court Judge Henry E. Needham Jr. ordered the state board in August to consider
such waivers, but had not issued a formal written judgment. On Thursday, he ordered that it
be issued. With the judgment, the board can now appeal Needham's decision, said Rae Belisle,
counsel for the Board of Education. Proposition 227, passed by 61 percent of the voters in
June, effectively eliminates bilingual education and requires teachers to conduct their
lessons "overwhelmingly" in English. Parents are allowed to request waivers for individual
children after a 30-day period. Last Friday, the board voted unanimously to postpone action
on requests from five school districts, pending an appeal. (Sacramento Bee)
SANTA MONICA, Calif. September 18 -- The state Board of Education has voted to give
charter status to a school in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, allowing it to
continue teaching students in both Spanish and English. Becoming a charter school will allow
Edison Language Academy, which has about 400 students in kindergarten through fifth grade,
to maintain its dual language curriculum, although most bilingual education programs in the
state were prohibited by passage of Proposition 227. Lori Orum, an administrator at Edison,
said: "100% of our teachers were behind the charter, and our whole parent community."
(Los Angeles Times)
LOS ANGELES, September 16 -- Superintendent Ruben Zacarias has recommended that 34
Los Angeles schools be exempt from placing children in English-immersion classes mandated
under Proposition 227. Zacarias told a Los Angeles Board of Education committee Tuesday
that he wants the state to grant the blanket waivers because the schools have exemplary
bilingual programs, according to published reports. And if the district gets the waivers,
more schools could become exempt from Proposition 227 if they adopt a certain bilingual
program, said Carmen Schroeder, associate superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School
District's division of instruction. "If in fact the board approves this and the state board says
yes, we want to look and see if other schools should adopt the program," Schroeder said.
"These schools all show the same pattern. If children are schooled in a language they
understand and get English instruction from the first day, they succeed." (MSNBC)
CAPISTRANO, Calif. September 16 -- School trustees gave preliminary approval Monday to
a policy allowing parents to seek exemption for their children from English-immersion
requirements in Proposition 227. The policy would be used by the Capistrano Unified
School District to grant or deny waivers to a parent seeking to keep or place a child in a
bilingual class. (Los Angeles Times)
PLEASANTON, Calif. September 15 -- When a 6-year-old girl in Christie Carnahan's first
grade class at Valley View Elementary in Pleasanton asked in Spanish yesterday whether she
should be coloring, Carnahan answered in English, moving her hand to mimic the task.
Carnahan's class has eight students who speak English and 10 who speak Spanish for what
was to have been the first year of a program to make all the students bilingual by fifth grade.
But before school started, the program was halted by Proposition 227, which virtually
banned bilingual education. Carnahan must speak only English with her students. Tonight,
however, the Pleasanton Unified School District board will consider waiving the law to allow
the program to proceed as originally planned. (San Francisco Chronicle)
SACRAMENTO, September 12 -- The State Board of Education refused Friday to consider
several school district requests for permission to continue bilingual education despite an
Alameda County judge's ruling last month that such applications must be heard. Instead,
board members meeting in Sacramento voted to appeal the Aug. 27 ruling by Superior Court
Judge Henry Needham Jr. Silvina Rubinstein, executive director of the California Assn. for
Bilingual Education, denounced the board's refusal to consider requests to waive the
requirements of Proposition 227, the anti-bilingual initiative approved by voters in June.
"It's a lack of commitment to provide leadership to the schools," Rubinstein said. But there
was good news Friday for some schools seeking to continue teaching in two languages as the
board approved 11 applications for so-called charter schools, a spokesman said. Such
schools are exempt from most state education laws--including, state officials say,
Proposition 227. (Los Angeles Times)
SACRAMENTO, September 12 -- After hearing from five school districts seeking waivers to
the anti-bilingual education Proposition 227, the state Board of Education voted
unanimously Friday to postpone action on the requests pending an appellate court ruling.
Lawyers for three Bay Area districts, which took the state board to court last month,
immediately said the board was in contempt of an Alameda County Superior Court judge's
ruling that the board must consider such waivers. "They're in violation of a court order,"
said attorney Celia Ruiz, who represents Berkeley, Oakland and Hayward school districts.
"We're going to go back to Superior Court as soon as possible," probably the middle of next
week. But state board attorney Rae Belisle said the board cannot be held in contempt because
it does not yet have a written judgment from Judge Henry E. Needham. Once that judgment is
received, the board will appeal it to the 1st District Court of Appeal. The board made that
decision Thursday. "There is a need to have a statewide court take a look at (an) issue . . . of
this importance," Belisle said. (Sacramento Bee)
WASHINGTON, September 11 -- Following the lead of California voters, the House yesterday
approved a plan that would make it harder for the nation's schoolchildren to get into
bilingual classes, and limit them to such classes for a maximum of three years. Modeled
after California's Proposition 227, a June ballot measure outlawing the state's bilingual
programs, the bill by Rep. Frank Riggs requires that parents give written permission
before children attend bilingual classes in any of the nation's 15,000 school districts.
Students who do not demonstrate a "mastery" of English after two years could no longer
participate in federally funded bilingual classes, which teach children in their native
language. Schools could petition for one more year of funding, but children could stay in the
classes no more than three years if the school hopes to keep its federal money. Congress is
scheduled to adjourn in October, and it is unclear if the Senate will vote on the bill by then.
(San Deigo Union-Tribune)
WASHINGTON, September 11 -- A GOP bill to limit federal support for bilingual education
cleared the House on Thursday, three months after Californians voted to end such programs.
Opponents accused Republicans of exploiting anti-immigrant feelings to win conservative
votes in midterm elections this fall. Sponsors said they were trying to ensure that the 3
million children who speak little or no English learn the language quickly. The measure,
passed 221-189, covers about $300 million worth of federal aid specifically earmarked
for bilingual and immigrant education. The money would have to be targeted to programs that
teach children English in two years. Aid would be limited to three years per pupil. (Nando
Times)
FRESNO, Calif. September 10 -- The California State Board of Education is set to vote Friday
on whether to grant Fresno Unified School District a waiver from Proposition 227, the
controversial law that changed the way non-English speaking students are taught English.
Forty-two districts statewide have applied for waivers to the law, which requires schools to
teach non-English speaking students mostly in English for one year, then put them in
regular English-language classes. Fourteen waiver requests are on Friday's agenda. Fresno
Unified wants a waiver on the grounds that following the law means breaking an agreement
the district has with the state Department of Education and the federal Office of Civil Rights.
(Fresno Bee)
WASHINGTON, September 9 -- The California's state school board is to respond this week to
a recent court order by considering requests from 18 districts to be exempted from the
state's new restrictions on bilingual education. The waivers are part of a legal odyssey that
began June 2, when California voters passed Proposition 227, a ballot measure that
requires schools, in most cases, to teach limited-English-proficient students mostly in
English. (Education Week)
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. September 8 -- With new textbooks ordered and staff retrained, the
Capistrano Unified School District has declared itself ready to dump bilingual education for
English-only instruction. "It's full steam ahead," Supt. James A. Fleming said. "No
equivocating." Teachers in the La Habra City School District are stripping Spanish posters
and library books from classrooms so that no more than 20% of room decorations or
learning aids are in a language other than English. And in the Tustin Unified School District,
which hasn't taught bilingual education in at least a decade, school officials are, well, not
doing much of anything. "We're pretty much all set," said Margaret Sanders, the district's
English language development coordinator. "We're watching everybody else go nuts in the
neighboring districts." Includes a look at what all 27 districts in Orange County are doing to
comply with the new mandate: (Los Angeles Times)
BOSTON, September 8 -- Proposition 227, the ballot measure approved in June that
declared children should learn English by being taught in English, is in full swing. But
outside California classrooms, the debate over bilingual education goes on, with challenges
looming in state and federal court. School officials are also looking anxiously toward Oct. 1.
For this school, that's the 30-day deadline provided in the law by which some parents may
ask that their children return to bilingual lessons. (Boston Globe)
OAKLAND, September 5 -- Oakland schools do not have to provide an English-only classroom
for an African American first-grader in his largely Cantonese- speaking school, a judge
ruled yesterday in a case that has attracted national attention. Ron Unz, the author of voter-
approved Proposition 227, which outlaws bilingual education in California, said the ruling
makes him question whether Oakland will comply with the new state law when school opens
Tuesday. If Oakland does not offer 6- year-old Travell Louie an English- only class at be
sued for damages in a statewide test of the new law. A provision in Proposition 227 allows
parents to sue for monetary damages from educators who do not enforce the law. ``There is a
reasonable possibility we may get involved,'' Unz said yesterday. (San Francisco Chronicle)
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. September 4 -- After months of persistent lobbying, two south
Orange County schools Thursday became the first in the state to win waivers that allow them
to maintain unusual programs that teach children both Spanish and English. The state
Department of Education granted Las Palmas Elementary in Capistrano Unified and Gates
Elementary in Saddleback Unified "alternative" school status, freeing them from the
provisions of the newly enacted Proposition 227, which virtually bans bilingual education.
"This is great news," Capistrano Unified Supt. James Fleming said. "This is a program that
is worthwhile and this is a program that works." Each of the programs, called "two-way
language immersion" programs, teaches both Spanish and English to children of various
language backgrounds. At Las Palmas, about half of the 720 enrolled students have been
participating in the program. The enrollment figures are similar at Gates. State education
officials said the waiver requests were approved because the schools demonstrated success
and strong community support. During a visit to Orange County last week, state Supt. of
Public Instruction Delaine Eastin watched as students from both schools showed her how the
programs work and listened to pleas from more than 300 parents asking to keep the
programs. (Los Angeles Times)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. September 2 -- As children return to classrooms up and down the state,
school districts are hastily devising programs to comply with Proposition 227--and are
spinning out a variety of efforts to delay, dilute or embrace the law's requirement that
students be taught "nearly all in English." No surprise there. The ambiguous language of the
initiative was intended to encourage flexibility in developing English immersion programs
to replace bilingual education. The result is a mix of programs based on various definitions
of "nearly all." Some districts have decided that as little as 60% English instruction
complies with the law, while others have settled on 70%, 80%, even 90% English. Still
others are trying to obtain waivers that would exempt them from the law altogether. As for
the students, their future academic success or failure will be influenced by the effectiveness
of these new, largely untested programs. (Los Angeles Times)
SAN FRANCISCO, September 2 -- As the first school year of the new English-only era begins
across California, children may speak in any language they like. It is their teachers who
must use English or risk a lawsuit from angry parents under Proposition 227. How
California teaches its 1.4 million children who speak little English has become the state's
most politicized education issue. Most teachers argued to keep -- but improve -- the
bilingual education system used for more than 20 years. Now, amid a bewildering patchwork
of official pronouncements and legal challenges to the initiative, parents, teachers and
students are struggling with how much English is enough. (San Francisco Chronicle)
MOSESTO, Calif. September 1 -- For all the controversy Proposition 227 created before
being voted on and approved in June, Modesto City Schools' plan to comply with it was
approved without a hitch. Monday night, the board unanimously approved its plan to
implement the initiative requiring California students be taught in English. Under the new
plan, English learner students will have three class options English Language Classrooms --
For students with the lowest levels of English proficiency to be taught through sheltered
English immersion. Instruction will be overwhelmingly in English with some primary
language support; English Language Mainstream Classrooms -- For students with better
English-speaking skills who still perform poorly on standardized tests. All instruction will
be in English; Spanish Bilingual Program -- For students with approved waivers.
Instruction will be in both English and Spanish. (Modesto Bee)
The Roll Call By Which The House Voted Thursday To
Limit Federal Aid To Bilingual Education.