During the 227 campaign, Ron Unz repeatedly said that his measure was not intended to destroy bilingual education completely, only to give parents more choices. Regardless of election rhetoric, the right for an individual parent to waiver is written into the law. But it does not have the obligation to withhold information that would help parents understand all their options under the law. As individuals who care, we need to take a more aggressive stance of informing parents of their rights and actively help them obtain these rights from the system. Every teacher whose students are affected by Proposition 227 should conference, in groups or individually, with the parents of their LEP students and offer clear information as to all the options under the law, including information about benefits of the basic bilingual program.
Parents have the right to waiver out of English immersion at any time during the school year.
We should not buy into the district's cowardly view that separates advocacy from professional advice. There is nothing wrong in being an advocate for the rights of the English-learning student. Nobody else is stepping forward to protect the rights of our LEP students. Proposition 227 will continue to wreck the educational opportunities for thousands of California's LEP students. It's time to tell the truth.