Opponents think many students will sink. Supporters rely on anecdotal evidence, popular misconceptions and misleading claims. Using Unz's own yardstick, the existing immersion programs have a failure rate higher than the 95 percent claimed for bilingual education. There is a large body of theory and research that shows bilingual education works very well when implemented competently. Many programs across the country have produced excellent results.
Recent studies find immigrant children doing better in school than native children.
It is absurd to blame bilingual education for the educational problems of the state's 1.4 million LEP students when only 30 percent of them are in bilingual programs. Judging by the almost unanimous opposition to Proposition 227 by educational organizations, teachers unions, linguists and political leaders, opponents of the Unz initiative won the debate in the public policy and scientific realms. But that hardly mattered in the final result. Ultimately the vote on Proposition 227 reflected less the debate over whether a teaching method is effective than the attitudes of different groups throughout the United States toward language. All have all been successful, regardless of where they were held or whether the issue was bilingualism in government or schooling.