SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — Despite a political climate rife with xenophobia and calls for assimilation, bilingual education advocates in California enjoy bipartisan support for an initiative that would repeal most of the once-popular law approved by voters decades ago that made English-only instruction standard across the state even for English learners.
Proposition 227 passed with 61 percent of the vote in 1998. It requires all California students, including English learners, be taught mostly in English. While the law did not outlaw bilingual programs in schools, it did require that parents sign waivers in order for their kids to participate in bilingual programs.
Consequently, schools tossed their bilingual programs out of an "abundance of caution" in complying with the law, according to Vickie Ramos Harris, senior advisor on education policy at the Advancement Project.
"School administrators didn't feel like they could go there for fear of being sued. Even today, administrators say it's a wound they still kind of feel. They did everything they could to make sure they weren't sued, and in doing so closed the door to families from having these conversations about what is best for their kids," Ramos Harris said.
No lawsuits were filed, mostly because school districts decided to unilaterally ban bilingual programs rather than worrying about complying with Proposition 227, Ramos Harris said.
In the academic — and political — world there are disputes over whether Proposition 227 benefited students, particularly English learners. Supporters point to a study which shows the law improved the academic test scores of over 1 million immigrant children in California. But opponents say that improvement can't be attributed to just one law, since many changes were made to education in California during that time. They also say research over the past 20 years points to social and cognitive benefits of educating multilingual kids.
Now, California voters seem to be on the opposite side of the spectrum in supporting bilingual education for students. Enter Proposition 58.
Recent polls indicate Proposition 58 has the support of 68 percent of voters — more than voted for Proposition 227 in 1998. Given the current political rhetoric surrounding immigration and "building a wall" along the U.S.-Mexico border, some are surprised at the support of new law promoting bilingualism.
But Ramos Harris said educators know a lot more about how kids learn — especially when it comes to language development — than experts knew when Proposition 227 was passed.
Proposition 58 surprisingly has support from more conservative-leaning business groups such as the California Chamber of Commerce and California Business Roundtable. Perhaps it's because the initiative is being framed as an "asset" for all California students, especially when it comes to creating competitive global citizens able to compete in the workforce.
"Our neuroscience tells us we are wired to learn every single language in the world," Ramos Harris said. "When we offer those opportunities early on, students develop a 'native' level of biliteracy. This is what they do in Europe and all over the world, but we just don't have that paradigm here."
Shelly Spiegel-Coleman with Californians Together, a statewide advocacy coalition for English learners, echoed Ramos Harris. She noted that brain research on English learners and biliterate people shows they have cognitive flexibility and can see things from more than one perspective, and even multitask better than people who speak only one language
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