Opponents argue that the measure to outlaw bilingual education violates the rights of California's 1.4 million limited-English students to an equal education. Defenders of the law say critics have a tough case to make in showing that the initiative, approved in June by 61 percent of voters, will cause harm. Prop. 227 requires teachers to use English overwhelmingly as the language of instruction and calls for limited-English students to be placed in mainstream classes, in most cases after one year of intensive immersion. The state Board of Education ruled that the program must begin at all schools that start after Aug. 2 or after the first grading term at schools that started earlier this summer. Officials from Santa Ana Unified, where 71 percent of the 54,000 students speak limited English, say they cannot meet the deadline.
Textbooks are the most obvious problem.
At a meeting Tuesday, the Santa Ana school board ordered a complete assessment of the costs of complying with Prop. 227. School board members favored a go-slow approach. The challenges of implementing the law were visible Tuesday at Edison. The year-round school, which resumed classes last week, has 950 students. More than 80 percent of them speak limited English.