At Cahuenga Elementary School, in the heart of Los Angeles' Koreatown, it's possible to grasp a piece of the complicated, increasingly tattered tapestry called bilingual education. In some classrooms, Spanish-speaking children are being taught mostly in Spanish. In others, Korean-speaking children are being taught mostly in Korean. But there is no clear, unassailable evidence to prove whether these programs succeed or fail in this goal, despite 30 years of experimentation and research.
Voters appear ready to sweep all of it away.
Proposition 227 on the ballot next Tuesday in California proposes to dismantle bilingual education by requiring that all instruction in public schools be in English only. Children with limited English skills would get one year of intensive English instruction before being placed in English-only classrooms. If it passes, California would be the first state to ban bilingual education by voter referendum. Supporters of 227 say California's bilingual education system must be dumped because it has produced low test scores, high dropout rates and tens of thousands of children who can't fully function in English. Opponents include nearly all political, educational and civil rights leaders except Gov. Pete Wilson and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.