Far from widening options for poor and immigrant parents, the English Language Initiative would make the sheltered English immersion process mandatory. Any parent wanting their child taught in a bilingual class must go in person to the school to ask for a waiver. A school district can deny waivers for any reason. If the parents of fewer than 20 students demand waivers, for example, a school is not required to provide a bilingual class. This means that the poorest parents have to find other, more distant, schools and somehow get their children there.
Undocumented parents are unlikely to ask for waivers at all.
Right now, parents have a choice about the programs used to teach their children, which the initiative takes away. A teacher who occasionally answers a child's question in Spanish could be sued for damages and lawyers' fees. David Bacon, an associate editor with Pacific News Service in San Francisco, writes frequently on immigration issues.