San Diego Union-Tribune

Tuesday, September 30, 1997

EDITORIAL
Bilingual Ban Goes Too Far
School districts should decide for themselves

The journalist H.L. Mencken once said there is a simple solution to almost every complex problem, and it's almost always wrong. He could have been describing a proposed ballot initiative that would all but banish bilingual education from California's public schools.

The measure is being bankrolled by Silicon Valley businessman Ron Unz, who three years ago challenged Pete Wilson for the gubernatorial nomination. The petition drive, given its ample financial backing, almost certainly will qualify the measure for the June 1998 ballot. If approved, it would essentially prevent teachers from using a foreign student's native language to help him or her make the transition to English.

There clearly are many fundamental problems with bilingual education, which all too often fails to teach students the language they need to succeed in this country. But Unz's sweeping prohibition on bilingual education could create an even greater degree of confusion among students who understand little or no English.

For starters, it would deprive them and their instructors of a learning tool that, if properly utilized, can bridge the language barrier. The operative phrase is properly utilized, because anecdotal evidence shows that some bilingual education programs are dead ends that have more to do with perpetuating flawed programs than with helping kids.

That some programs are not working is no reason to scrap the bilingual concept altogether in all schools throughout California. If anything, it illustrates the importance of letting local school districts provide language programs that best suit the needs of their students, whether that is English immersion or bilingual education. As it is, districts are still at the mercy of state mandates that tell them they must teach non-English-speaking children in their native languages.

A bill that would remove those shackles is being carried by Sen. Dede Alpert, D-Coronado, and Assemblyman Brooks Firestone, R-Santa Barbara. The measure would give districts the latitude to experiment with programs, while at the same time hold them accountable for moving English-deficient kids forward in a timely manner.

This measured approach makes far more sense that the punitive prescription proposed by Unz and those who deem bilingual education to be a waste of time or a plot to undermine the purity of the English language.

California should be seeking the best way to educate students with language deficiencies, instead abandoning them. Bilingual education may be a problem in some districts, but banning it outright is a dangerously simplistic solution.