Many districts have been in compliance with Proposition 227 for years, having abandoned native-language instruction long before the June referendum. Others are determined to go along with the new plan, known as English immersion. The superintendent has set the tone that we will not defy the law. During the last two months, educators rewrote lesson plans, shopped for texts and advised teachers and parents. Not that the transition is all sewn up.
Some classrooms have yet to receive the English-language textbooks they ordered over the summer.
School administrators are still trying to figure out how to deal with parents' requests that their children be taught through bilingual education, as the law allows them to do. Still, Santa Ana had a well-established bilingual program backed by many parents, teachers and administrators who were reluctant to change. Opponents of bilingual education already are angry with the school district, saying it has tried to circumvent the law by encouraging parents to seek waivers. Under Proposition 227, after the first 30 days parents can apply for waivers that would allow their children to return to bilingual education. Santa Ana's policy sets up individual or small group meetings with parents in their native language in which they are told about their right to a waiver.