Letter: Bilingual education a civil rights issue

The dismantling of bilingual education in the California schools represents the reversal of civil rights gains over the past 30 years. Just when we had begun to think that we had made strides toward racial and social equity, we are jolted with the passage of propositions such as 227, which essentially condemns children to being taught in a language that they do not fully comprehend, places them at an enormous disadvantage with their monolingual peers and, ultimately, seriously compromises their future.

Given that bilingual programs may have practical problems -- the lack of consistency, lack of teacher preparation, and lack of quality curricular materials -- the main problem lies in its fundamental conceptualization: bilingual education should not be viewed as remedial, but as an enrichment. Most countries in the world have run successful bilingual programs, and produced children who can speak more than one language (i.e., Canada, most European countries, African countries, etc.). As a matter of fact, today more than ever, bilingualism seems to be essential in the business world as it becomes ever so global. However, in California, we have opted to completely eliminate bilingual education and to punish children who require bilingual instruction in order to be active participants in the academic environment.

Since there is no sound educational argument for the elimination of bilingual education one could argue that this initiative comes for the sake of maintaining economic power structures and the status quo. However, we should face the challenge of living up to our civil right promises. We should also build upon the extensive research and statistics in support of bilingual education; this information received very little attention in the media, unlike millionaire Mr. Unz's heavily funded campaign to present his version of the issue. Doing away with bilingual education will not do away with language minority children. Instead, this measure can result in children who are not proficient in any language and who will go through life wondering why they hadn't been given a chance.

Ana Christina Iddings

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