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English affirmed
In a land where political correctness usually overshadows reason, voters came to the conclusion — after 30 years — that bilingual instruction wasn't working. Proposition 227, which ordered that children "be taught English by being taught English," won approval from voters but was attacked by an anti-English coalition.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund argued the program's "bias" violated the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The appeals court found that to be a "novel interpretation."
Proposition 227 was supported by 84 percent of California's Latino voters, whose primary concern was practical — the education of their children. They correctly understood that bilingual education was holding their children back.
Not long after the English initiative passed, elementary test scores climbed. Those of children who received waivers to continue their bilingual education remained stagnant. What eventually turned the tide in California was not merely the "English-in-American-schools" argument. It's that parents finally woke up to the failures of a flawed system of education.
Here's hoping parents nationwide won't wait decades before recognizing more significant, even crippling, flaws inherent in public education's monopoly.
