Democrats' Last Stand on Bilingual Education Vol. Alpert had previously introduced her bill last year, but it was bottled up in a Democrat-controlled State Assembly committee. A lot of people want to point to something and say, 'See, we have something. The Democrats' allies in the press have also rallied. Although superficially appealing, the Alpert bill is fatally flawed because it doesn't address the fundamental problem afflicting the public education system.
Public education remains a virtual monopoly.
Thus, giving one part of that monopoly, local school districts, the ability to choose teaching methods merely guarantees that local district bureaucrats, local bilingual education teachers, and local special interest groups are empowered to ensure that bilingual education continues undisturbed in the classroom. Bilingual education is a matter of religious faith for its advocates and one can be assured that when it performs poorly, it will simply be tweaked and repackaged under a different name. The end result will be more of the same. For the Alpert bill to foster real change in the classroom, the public school monopoly would have to be dismantled. Unlimited numbers of charter schools and widespread public-private school choice would force local districts to pay attention to the concerns, not of local bureaucrats and special interests, but of parents.