Last June, California banned the use of bilingual education, a move applauded by many Republican leaders. Texas not only permits bilingual education, many of its schools are planning to increase its use so that students who leave classes taught in Spanish for those taught in English maintain their fluency and literacy as they get into the upper elementary grades. Mr. Bush said he favored ''what works'' and as long as children learned English and proved, through their test scores, their English proficiency, he had no objection to the use of bilingual education. It has worked in border cities like Brownsville. Superintendent Wallace Jackson said that six years ago, based on the skills test, the Brownsville school district had 11 low-performing schools out of 43.
Today there are none.
We have improved the food. This year, Ms. Senteno said, only 5 seniors failed the skills test. Three years ago, there were 70. Privacy Information Stay connected to the news that interests you with free e-mail alerts from The New York Times.