Educators were split Friday on the board's decision the previous day to give local school districts more freedom to decide whether they want to offer bilingual instruction. In one camp were those who said they favor native language education for their students and have no plans to drop it. Typical of this view were officials in the Santa Ana and Los Angeles unified school districts. In Los Angeles Unified, nearly half of the 680,000 students are not fluent in English. San Francisco and Ventura unified school district officials also said they plan no changes.
New regulations governing language instruction have yet to be worked out.
The Capistrano Unified School District's board of trustees voted Monday night to switch from a bilingual program that lasts as long as six years to one that lasts only one or two. District officials were concerned that they might have to ask the state board for special approval. The state board's actions also could have repercussions for a campaign to curtail bilingual education by voter initiative. Holli Thier, spokeswoman for the No on 227 campaign, said the state board's action underscores the contention that the initiative would impose a statewide mandate. The problem with Prop. 227 is it will outlaw all of that choice.