And a provision that holds educators and school officials personally liable for failing to carry out the initiative would trigger a slew of lawsuits. But not everyone saw the issue as clear-cut. Ms. Hernandez, who was raised in California in a Spanish-speaking home by parents who came from Mexico, said she made it without bilingual education, so others also should be able to. But she realizes she might not have made it without the help of an English-speaking aunt. But you have to adjust to this way in America.
Teachers Divided For teachers, the issue is often no less fraught.
Union leaders like Wayne Johnson, the vice president of the 270,000-member California Teachers Association, say their membership is almost evenly split on bilingual education. For some, it's a question of philosophy or ideology. For others, it's a job issue. And many veteran teachers resent being asked to go through additional training in order to teach LEP students. While acknowledging such divisions, union leaders have mounted internal campaigns to urge their rank and file to vote against Proposition 227.