English Language in Public Schools. Initiative Statute.
	Argument in Favor of Proposition 227

WHY DO WE NEED TO CHANGE CALIFORNIA'S BILINGUAL EDUCATION SYSTEM?

• Begun with the best of intentions in the 1970s, bilingual education has failed in actual practice, but the politicians and administrators have refused to admit this failure.

• For most of California's non-English speaking students, bilingual education actually means monolingual, SPANISH-ONLY education for the first 4 to 7 years of school.

• The current system fails to teach children to read and write English. Last year, only 6.7 percent of limited-English students in California learned enough English to be moved into mainstream classes.

• Latino immigrant children are the principal victims of bilingual education. They have the lowest test scores and the highest dropout rates of any immigrant group.

• There are 140 languages spoken by California's schoolchildren. To teach each group of children in their own native language before teaching them English is educationally and fiscally impossible. Yet this impossibility is the goal of bilingual education.

COMMON SENSE ABOUT LEARNING ENGLISH

• Learning a new language is easier the younger the age of the child.

• Learning a language is much easier if the child is immersed in that language.

• Immigrant children already know their native language; they need the public schools to teach them English.

• Children who leave school without knowing how to speak, read, and write English are injured for life economically and socially.

WHAT "ENGLISH FOR THE CHILDREN" WILL DO:

• Require children to be taught English as soon as they start school.

• Provide "sheltered English immersion" classes to help non-English speaking students learn English; research shows this is the most effective method.

• Allow parents to request a special waiver for children with individual educational needs who would benefit from another method.

WHAT "ENGLISH FOR THE CHILDREN" WON'T DO:

It will:

• NOT throw children who can't speak English into regular classes where they would have to "sink or swim."

• NOT cut special funding for children learning English.

• NOT violate any federal laws or court decisions.

WHO SUPPORTS THE INITIATIVE?

• Teachers worried by the undeniable failure of bilingual education and who have long wanted to implement a successful alternative--sheltered English immersion.

• Most Latino parents, according to public polls. They know that Spanish-only bilingual education is preventing their children from learning English by segregating them into an educational dead-end.

• Most Californians. They know that bilingual education has created an educational ghetto by isolating non-English speaking students and preventing them from becoming successful members of society.

WHO OPPOSES THE INITIATIVE?

• Individuals who profit from bilingual education. Bilingual teachers are paid up to $5,000 extra annually and the program provides jobs to thousands of bilingual coordinators and administrators.

• Schools and school districts which receive HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of extra dollars for schoolchildren classified as not knowing English and who, therefore, have a financial incentive to avoid teaching English to children.

• Activist groups with special agendas and the politicians who support them.

ALICE CALLAGHAN
Director, Las Familias del Pueblo
RON UNZ
Chairman, English for the Children
FERNANDO VEGA
Past Redwood City School Board Member